Crashed
by girlstarfish
Summary: (yaoi/au/somewhat serious) continuation from System Error. Heero and Duo continue to face the problems of life, death, what Heero is exactly and whether there is life beyond hormones, while Quatre finds he has a lot to worry about.
1. crashed 1.

___Crashed 1/?___

By Girl_starfish

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4th story in the Heist series, a gift for Asuka. This is what I meant when I said Heist was part of another story—you can see plot starting to surface in places. This bit is kind of untidy because parts of it got lost while I was travelling and I have fingers crossed that I didn't leave out any important plot points. Enjoy.

_______________________

It had been a week. Quatre had barely slept, barely eaten, barely gone out of his house except to see for himself Heero and J's apartment and the site of his friend's kidnapping. He'd been glued to his computer, only leaving it to watch the hourly updates on the news. 

To say he was upset would be the understatement of the decade. He had actually snapped at Relena Peacecraft the fifth time she phoned and had cut Dorothy Catalonia off quite rudely. And for all that . . . not to mention the wealth of his father, his families' connections, and their formidable data banks . . . 

Heero Yuy had not been found.

Troublesome as the disappearance of his friend was, that was not the only thing worrying Quatre. 

In an attempt to calm his distraught son down, Mr Winner had pointed out that the all available police were out searching for Heero. In fact, they were even being assisted by the security forces. In short, anything that could be done was being done. 

And that bothered him.

True, he was glad that everyone seemed to be so interested in finding his friend.   
Then he began to wonder why.

Heero was a scientific and medical marvel, an inspirational tale of triumph over great odds. But . . . he was just a person. He had no high connections, no great wealth--aside from humanitarian concern, there was really no reason for him to be so thoroughly sought after.

Just as there was no real reason for him to be taken.

Sure, there were a fair amount of extremists around, dissatisfied with robotic technology, who might consider Heero's development a threat to original human life. There'd been the same sort of fuss surrounding the genetic modification of humans. And yet . . .

It worried Quatre how little he actually knew about his friend. Yes, he knew Heero had more robotic parts than human. He'd never liked to ask him further though; Heero was notoriously touchy about his mechanical parts. Or even J for that matter. Quatre, ever diplomatic, had simply let the matter lie. But now, now he realized just how much he needed to know.

With that in mind he'd hacked into J's computer system. It had taken him two days to get past the firewall—he was only beginning to learn his family trade—only to be met by an apparently innocent and ordinary—if the accounts of someone like J could truly be termed ordinary—set of accounts. Nothing odd, no abnormalities anywhere. 

The more Quatre browsed the accounts, the more he was convinced. Something was seriously wrong. 

It was in Heero's accounts he found it. Right there at the start. A hospital grant of $50 000 to pay for the construction of Heero's first robotic body (he'd gone through several as he'd grown). 

Robots themselves retailed around a million each, and Heero's body was far more advanced, far more expensive than that of an ordinary robot. Obviously, extra money must have come from somewhere—yet there was no record of it.

Quatre kept looking.

On the fourth day, the sixth after Heero's disappearance, a random code generating programme unlocked a series of hidden files. Quatre read through them in confusion. What on earth was the Kushrenada Institute doing, paying J's bills—and why didn't they want this known?

"Master Quatre? Your presence is required for dinner."

"In a minute," Quatre replied, still watching the screen. 

"That won't do," Rashid chided. "Have you forgotten? We have guests tonight."

"Iria's back?" Quatre obediently shut down his programmes. Not only was his elder sister good company, but she was involved in the Winner's information gathering exercises. She might even be able to help . . . 

Rashid laid out an appropriate suit and tie on the bed. Turning, he found Quatre still absorbed in the computer. He cleared his throat. "Master Quatre?"

Quatre tore himself away from the screen with great unease. The password for the hidden accounts did not bode well. 

Perfect soldier.

------------------------

Heero.

"We're all going on a summer holiday, no more working for a week or two. Fun and laughter—"

"Duo?"

"On our summer—what?"

"Shut up. The rest of us are not tone deaf."

"Just what are you insinuating, Mack?"

"Duo," the rest of the Sweepers chorused. "Shut up."

I carefully deprogrammed the smile off my face. It would not do for Duo to get mad at me. Although even now, while pouting outrageously and shooting death glares at the crew, Duo didn't look too upset. 

"Oy!" Duo collapsed onto the seat next to me. "I'm mortally wounded by your callous treatment—"

"Sit down kid," Howard clapped him on the shoulder. "The shuttle's in good condition, but it's old and the rest of you would feel a lot better without you jumping around the place like a mad hare."

"I was not jumping around the place like a mad hare," Duo muttered, sulking.

I tried to feel sympathetic but failed. Although I'd seen enough to trust to the Sweeper's mechanical skills, the shuttle was rather old, with a tendency to lurch unsteadily. Knowing Duo was sitting down made me feel a lot better.

There was also the fact he was sitting next to me.

"Where are we going?" I asked him.

"—old coot's probably never even seen a mad hare in his life so how would he know—huh? Didn't I tell you?"

I shook my head. "You woke me up this morning yelling something about the fact that you were no longer grounded and we could finally blow this sorry joint at which point you got into an argument with Howard over whether or not you could take me. No one ever explained the purpose of this excursion."

"We're going to look for parts," Duo said. "We get to climb over rubble and poke around in old buildings, looking for anything metal. Loads of fun."

"I see." I was dubious.

"Perhaps you should leave the AI on the shuttle," Howard said. "It's not equipped for heavy lifting, I don't see how it could be of much use to us."

I ground my hands into fists but kept my face perfectly calm. I could not after all get upset. To the Sweepers I was just 'the AI'.

"Heero's got to come," Duo argued immediately, slipping a hand over to mine, the gesture hidden from the rest of the crew. "He's another member of the crew now, he needs to learn his surroundings, just like the rest of us. Plus, didn't you say something about having infra-red sensors?"

I nodded. "Accurate over several miles."

"Fine then, but he's your lookout, kid." Howard returned to the front of the shuttle. 

I watched him. Something about the way he acted, the way the crew talked in subdued voices, something at odds with Duo's cheerful behaviour—

"Is something wrong?" I asked Duo. "The crew seems—uneasy."

"Oh, we're fine. We're just going into Fang territory, that's all. You can never tell what they'll be like."

"Fang?"

"Generic scary name for generic gang of losers who have the territory bordering on ours in the place we're going sweeping today. They're not too big of a threat but they're not pushovers either. Generally they leave us alone and we leave them alone. No biggie."

I was not reassured. 

"Heads up for landing, people!" Howard announced from the front.

"This is always interesting," Duo said. "You'd better hold on tight."

I complied.

The landing was indeed interesting. I think, from the way the shuttle slid, and the way we were bounced from one corner to the other, that our pilot must have put us down on some very loose rubble.

"Ow," Duo groaned. 

Howard and the rest of the Sweepers smirked. 

"If the two of you can manage to disentangle yourselves, we'll be outside working," Howard said as they left.

I sat up slowly, running a quick scan for malfunctions. The pressure sensitive padding all over my body protested, but there was no real cause for alarm. "Are you all right?" I asked Duo.

"I've been better." Duo grumpily sat up. "What did you do that for?"

Had I committed an error? "You told me to hold on tightly."

"I meant to the wall or seats," Duo said. "Not me!"

"Oh." That made a lot of sense. "I apologize."

"Apology accepted." Duo sighed then gave me a grin. "I can't stay mad at you, you know that? It's impossible." He kissed me quickly. "Come on. Howard and the others are waiting. And mind the step out of the shuttle."

It was dark outside. I suppose that was what startled me most about the downside. Going outside upside meant sunlight, and if you were rich enough, fresh air and open space. Downside though . . . 

"Shut your eyes, Hee-chan. Howard's gonna use the shuttle lights and when they're turned on full they're a bit much."

"A bit much of what?" I asked, wincing as I was suddenly assaulted by a bright glare of light.

"Should have listened," Duo sighed. "You okay?"

"I will be, once I've adjusted my optical sensors to compensate," I answered.

"Good. Join me when you're done—I gotta earn my keep before Howard decides to yell at me—" Duo scrambled over rubble to join his comrades. 

I followed more cautiously. Collapsed walls and debris were everywhere and the Sweepers methodically sorted through them.

"Metal detected over here!" one of the men announced. "A hand anyone?"

Others gathered to dig up and analyse the metal parts found. They were sorted into scrap and parts that could be reused as they were. 

Mid afternoon, or what I guessed was mid-afternoon, we made a major discovery. An old generator, pretty much intact.

"Ya reckon you can fix this?"

"Easy!" Duo snorted. "It's old and very rusty but all the major parts are there. We're gonna have to take it apart and clean it but the parts are good."

"Right. Let's get started then."

There was something of a change in the attitude of the Sweepers after that. Howard posted more guards around the area we were working.

"Is something wrong?" I asked Duo.

"We're being watched," Duo said conversationally. "It's hard to do anything down here without people noticing. Most are just nosy, not looking to harm us, but ready to take advantage of any opportunity that comes their way, like an unattended light or tool . . . actually, that's how I first met Howard and the guys."

"Yes?" I said, not seeing the connection. Then again, I was more concerned with scanning our surroundings for watchers. Duo was right, a multitude of life form readings returned. However, the people who caught me looking at them melted back in the shadows quickly.

"Howard learnt the hard way there isn't anything safe from me," Duo snickered. "He hadn't left the shuttle unattended a minute before I tried to steal it."

Now I snickered. I'd acquired the habit from Duo sometime over the last few days. Wufei told me it was very unattractive and that I should strive to retain my professional cool. Duo said that Wufei was being an overly anal jerk, an expression he then refused to explain. I got the impression there was something going on there. "You robbed Howard?"

"Tried to," Duo shrugged. "He kinda caught me. Not surprising really. I was only six—couldn't even reach the pedals, not that I knew how to drive back then."

"Yet you were trying to steal a shuttle? What would you have done with it?"

"Dunno really. I suppose I thought it'd come in useful," Duo said vaguely. "Okay, this section is ready for lifting."

I watched as the generator, now in bits, was collected by a mover port with a strong magnetic field attached (Duo advised me to step away).

"Why separate it?" I asked. "That port looks strong enough to carry the whole thing."

"We do that and our captivated audience yonder knows we've got something worth having," Duo explained. "That's trouble we don't need. The Fang must know we're here by now. They've got spies all over. But they've messed with us before and come off worse, so unless they think it's worth the effort, they'll leave us alone."

I nodded, shoulders prickling under invisible gazes. I did not feel entirely happy with the situation, but there was not much I could do beyond stay alert.

I was not the only uneasy one. 

"Dim the lights," Howard ordered, not too far from where we worked. "But don't do it obviously." He paused as he passed us. "You okay, kid?"

"We're just peachy, Howard." Duo sounded oddly subdued.

"Good." Howard hesitated then threw Duo something. "No foolishness, you understand?"

"Howard," Duo said condescendingly. "Would I do something like that?"

"Just take care." Howard clapped him on the shoulder, then nodded to me as he left.

It was a start I supposed. At least he wasn't glaring at me suspiciously or talking about spare parts anymore. I turned to Duo to find him staring uncharacteristically seriously at the object Howard had thrown him.

A gun.

My chest tightened. 

This was wrong. Duo had an undercurrent of danger and recklessness to him—burglary wasn't an altogether tame profession. If his attitude towards other people (and their possessions) was a little more rough and ready than I could condone, I'd written it off to the effects of living downside, where survival was by no means assured and different rules applied. 

Despite this I'd learned Duo was funny and kind and wouldn't hurt anyone. 

Would he?

"Heck," he whispered. "Howard's never done this before—" He looked up and his eyes met mine. "I think this is serious. If anything happens, stay down. I'll take care of you."

He meant that too.

I was strangely touched—at the same time I was appalled. Duo should not endanger himself on my behalf. If anything, it should be the other way round. I should protect him.

Why I felt that so strongly, I could not explain. 

About half an hour later, something happened.

Duo had paused in his work. "Does it seem awfully quiet to you all of a sudden?"

I hesitated. "My external sensors indicate a sudden dispersion of life forms—"

An instant later a volley of shots rang out. 

Duo ducked behind a partly crumbling wall, pulling me with him. 

There were shouts around us as the rest of the Sweepers took cover, Howard yelling orders to stay out of sight. I pulled myself up slowly, careful to remain in shadow.

Duo was already up, gun at the ready, squinting at the shadows. "Oh, this is bad."

"Are you injured?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that Duo handled the gun like one used to that, and that I, who as far as I knew had never seen a gun in real life, recognised this fact.

"Not me. The situation has me worried. The light—you see?"

I looked over Duo's shoulder carefully. I sized up the position in moments—the light of the shuttle that enabled the Sweepers to work now made them easy targets. The Fang, assuming it was the Fang who were attacking, could shoot at whim from the shadows, masked perfectly. 

"We have to turn the light off, we're sitting ducks," Duo said. "But how do we get there without being shot?"

"Could you not shoot it out?" I asked.

"Hell no! Howard would kill me! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get those parts? That light is irreplaceable!"

A bullet struck the stone just above our heads and we ducked again. 

"If I were to—I'm small enough that it just might work—" Duo squinted out at the darkness again and came to a decision. "Heero, stay here."

"What are you—" I stopped as Duo, ignoring my question, ducked out from our hiding place and disappeared behind another rock. 

It was far too dangerous for him to be alone. I waited a moment then followed. Ducking behind rocks and bits of rubble, making short dashes to new hiding places, I caught up with Duo at the shuttle.

"What are you doing?" Duo panted. "I told you to stay put!"

"Howard told you not to do anything foolish," I returned.

"Whatever," he shrugged. "Stay down. There's one of them above us—I know he knows I'm here, every now and then he takes a pot shot at me—but he doesn't know exactly where I am. Problem is, I don't know where he is either."

A bullet ricocheted off the shuttle and we ducked. 

"You see?" Duo paused. "It hit here, sounded like it came from there . . ."

He raised the gun slowly.

This was wrong, this was wrong, I should stop it—

"Duo—"

"Yeah?"

"A little higher. My heat sensors indicate that he is there." The words that came out of my mouth surprised me. 

Duo looked at me, then obeyed. "This right?"

"Yes."

Duo turned back to his target. There was a second when he did nothing—and I thought he wasn't going to shoot at all. But there was another volley of gunfire behind us, and we heard one of the Sweepers cry out in pain. Duo's face tightened and he fired.

And then we waited.

Minutes passed, no returning shot.

"You think we got him?" Duo's voice sounded uncertain and very young.

"I don't know. He hasn't moved."

"Oh. You stay here. I'm going to sneak round the front and turn the light off."

"But you'll be in full view of everyone," I protested. "That's madness!"  
"It's the only way to turn off the light," Duo said with a rueful smile. "Can't get in from the outside, Howard's got the keys and the thing's armoured. He learnt his lesson about security after he met me, all right." He turned, ready to slip along the side of the shuttle—

I grabbed his arm. "Wait."

"Heero, why—" Duo shut up and let me kiss him, pressing him against the shuttle side. I think I was getting better at kissing. Duo's body relaxed against mine totally, and he was so absorbed in the kiss he didn't notice that I'd removed the gun from his grasp until after I'd done it. 

"Heero—" he started.

"I'm going to cover you," I told him. "If you're going out there then you need some protection. I can use this thing better than you, and you're going to need both hands free to disconnect the light."

Duo hesitated. "Are you sure about this?"

"It feels strangely right, familiar—as if I were meant to do this." I looked up to find Duo looking at me as if I'd announced that Wufei was the prophet of the bird people and I was going to take his advice and sprout wings. "I'll be fine. Metal plating and everything—just don't let anything happen to yourself."

Duo nodded. "Take care, Heero."

"I will." I turned, broadening the width of my heat sensors. "We go—now."

We stepped out from our shelter—and that was all I remember of the battle.

________________

TBC.


	2. crashed 2.

___Crashed 2/?__

By Girl_starfish

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Second verse, same as the first. A little bit louder and a little bit worse.

_______________________

Treize looked up with a slight grimace as J entered. His office was elegantly styled, in turn of the century luxury. It was tidy, oozed wealth and roses, and was a fitting place for the head of the Kushrenada Institute to reside. J—well, bluntly, J stood out like a sore thumb. Treize briefly considered offering him some fashion advice but decided against it. He had to have important news to even think of upsetting Treize's decorating scheme. 

"J," he said pleasantly. "What a surprise—"

"Security breach," J said immediately. "Someone has hacked into my files."

"My, my." Treize shook his head. "Did they find Heero's records?"

"They did."

"Well." Treize pressed a button on the panel on his desk. "We must see to this." As they waited he asked idly, "Any idea who?"  
"The Winners." 

"Ah." Treize frowned. "This could be difficult. Still . . . the Winners have been encroaching on our territory lately—"

J grinned. "Mr Winner did turn down my application for funding—"

There was a sharp knock at the door. 

"You wanted me, Your Excellency?" 

Treize smiled. "Colonel Une. Just the person we need—"

_______________

Duo.

My fingers slid over the wires. Why is it that whenever you want to do something quickly and efficiently, your fingers go to pieces and nothing co-operates with you? Add flying bullets to the mix, and it's a guarantee that nothing will go right.

"Shit, shit, shit—" I muttered, as the right wires finally came loose—

"Look out." Heero grabbed me, pulling me close to him. I was about to protest, when I heard the crack of guns. Heero stumbled forward—I realised from the impact of the bullets.

He'd used his body to shield me?

"Heero—"

"Concentrate on the light," he ordered me, his voice the most mechanical I'd heard it. 

His face was blank. I gulped, turning back to the light and trying to ignore the neat little holes in Heero's back—if he hadn't been there—

Bullet fire continued around me. I worked the light controls trying to keep my mind focused only on that. Finally the light flickered off.

"Now the playing field's equal—" I turned to Heero. "Give me the gun. You've done enough—"

"Unacceptable. There is still considerable threat."

He didn't sound like Heero. "You were shot. You've got to stay out of this."

"Negative." It was all I could do not to yelp as Heero casually threw me over his shoulder—with the lights out, everyone was operating on sound. "You do not possess metal plating. I do."

"What are you doing?" I hissed. "Heero, put me down!"

"The shuttle is armoured. You will be adequately protected there." Heero opened the shuttle door and dumped me inside. As an afterthought, he tossed the gun in with me before shutting the door. I immediately tried to open it, only to discover it was locked. 

"Heero!" I howled. "Let me out!"

There was no answer.

"Of all the rotten no-good—" I struggled with the door handle, temporarily choked for words with the extent of my rage. How dare he try and protect me! How dare he be out there, getting shot at, and lock me away in here—"The jerk!" I stabbed a finger in the general direction of the battle. "If you think I'm going to forgive you for being all brave and noble, you can forget it, Heero Yuy. You are going to be sorry for this!"

I felt slightly better, but apart from that my mini-tantrum did not have much effect. With a sigh and a few more unkind words directed against Heero I pulled out the first aid kit and began to get it ready. After all, this is where I usually wound up any time things got messy. Only difference being that it was usually Howard or one of the Sweepers who threw me in here. 

I settled back to wait.

Times like this, you have to try and think about anything but what is happening out there. You do that, you go crazy. Trust me, I've worked myself frantic dozens of time, to no avail. I thought about the Winner job, evil things to do to Heero and what a jerk Wufei was. That led me onto thinking about the Heero problem. 

I'd thought about this quite a lot. Getting, um, the necessary parts, providing Heero survived and didn't get shot to pieces, wouldn't be a problem. There's plenty of pleasure houses that deal in mechanical partners, both sexes. It wouldn't be difficult for me to find, steal or buy whatever we needed. The problem was, well, connecting the parts. 

No-one cares about a robot. They can be programmed to go through the necessary actions and reactions, but they feel nothing. I didn't want that. If Heero and I were going to have a relationship, it was going to be on equal terms, damn it. He would feel whatever a person felt, there had to be some way . . . 

Problem was, I was a mechanic, not a surgeon. I had a fair idea where the major organs were, and that getting shot in any of them was a bad idea. At a pinch, I made a good medic, Sally saying I had good hands for being a doctor. But I didn't have the necessary knowledge for this . . . you know, connecting nerve ends and such and brain functions.

There was someone who did.

Someone who would be only too happy to assist me, to offer advice and work with me through every stage of this endeavour. The only problem was, that person was G.

The door of the shuttle opened. 

"Duo! Get the kit out—Roger's arm needs bandaging, and Short Jack's been hurt, we don't know how bad. George too, but if he's complaining about missing the circus tonight, then he can't be seriously hurt. The rest of you, get back to loading the generator."

I already had the bandages ready, Old Jack helping me cut away Roger's sleeve to get at the wound. "Heero?"

"He's still out there."

"Is he hurt?"

"He doesn't seem to be."

Well so much for him. It would be a different story after I got through with him, I thought smugly, unintentionally pulling Roger's bandages so tightly he yelped.

Short Jack turned out to be not too badly hurt, and George would need Sally to patch him up. I picked up the first aid kit pleasantly relieved. We'd been lucky. Encounters with the Fang usually turn out nastier than this.

I said so to Howard.

"You can thank your robot for that," Howard said. "I've never seen anything like it. Duo—" he pulled me over to one side. "Tell me the truth. Heero's not a normal AI, is he?"

"No," I said. "Not normal at all."

"Boss, we need a hand—"

"We'll discuss this later," Howard said. 

I did not relish the prospect.

I took the first aid kit and went to find Heero.

"I hope you're pleased with yourself," I said crossly. "Howard wants to talk to me later about you. Whatever you did out there, it's got his suspicions up."

"Unfortunate but necessary," Heero replied, still in that clipped tone. "You had to be protected. The best way to do that was to eliminate the threat."

"Eliminate?" I asked uneasily. 

Heero nodded. "There is no one left who is a threat to you."

I didn't like this. Down here, we don't talk about this. Killing is sometimes necessary as a matter of survival, but no one talks about it. We just pass over the subject . . . Heero was rather too matter of fact about it for my liking. 

"Are you hurt?"

"I'm functioning at 59% capacity," Heero reported. "There is a leak in my internal battery."

"Doesn't sound too bad," I said. "I'm sure I can fix that. Let's get back to the shuttle."

Heero walked steadily back to the shuttle without any need of assistance. For some reason that bothered me. If I'd been shot three times, I wouldn't like to be walking anywhere. But Heero was unique, I guess.

Once we got to the shuttle he surprised me again. "Threat has been deemed satisfactorily negated. Operative mode 'soldier' will discontinue in two minutes."

"Groovy," I said. "What the heck are you on about?"

"I will perform an all systems check now before shutting down to await repair," he continued. He did so.

"Fine then, ignore me. See if I care." I sulked.

I didn't like this at all.

If even the fact that he had to pretend to be an AI around Howard and the boys upset him, what was Heero doing? He was behaving more like a machine than I'd ever seen him—and I had no idea why.

More worrying was the fact that he'd left the gun with me. If I had the only weapon between us—how had he eliminated the threat?

"Kid," Howard said, sitting down opposite me. "We need to talk about your little find there. Spill. What's he really?"

"The truth?" I said bitterly. "I haven't the faintest idea."

When we got back to the fort, Howard gave me the run of workroom 7 without me even needing to ask. When I returned from retrieving the Shinigami sign from my room, I found he'd even sent in a toolbox. 

I decided to thank him later. For now—

I opened the toolbox. Heero.

It was reasonably easy to repair the damage done by the bullets. Like Heero said, metal plating was a bonus. But the one that had managed to rupture his internal battery was causing more problems. Battery fluid had damaged the sensitive wiring around his central circuitry and without being bad enough to pose an immediate threat, it was bad enough I couldn't fix it on my own. Heero's wiring was just too delicate. To replace it, I'd need special equipment.

Then there was the rest.

J had been busy. He'd not just left out some very important pieces, he'd made additions to--

"Duo? Duo? Braided idiot?"

I blinked. Wufei was waving a hand in front of my face, Trowa hovering at his elbow, amused. By the looks of things they'd been at it some time. "What?"

"What were you doing?" Wufei demanded. "You were just sitting there, staring at the wall."

"I was thinking," I said grimly.

Wufei humphed, making an annoyed sound. "Perhaps it's as well the job's off. We can't operate unless we're all working at full capacity."

I ignored the slight. "What do you mean, the job's off?"

"Exactly that. In fact, that's why we came to see you, to let you know. We couldn't get through before."

"We were out on a sweep," I said. "Fang territory. Three injured, no casualties. On our side at least. Four if you count Heero."

"Why wouldn't you count Heero?" Trowa asked.

"It's complicated," I said shortly. And it was. When I'd taken him apart to repair him. I was appalled. And yet—fascinated. 

If it was found out what Heero was—

"Will Heero be joining us?" Wufei asked with a smirk. He was looking to where Heero was lying on the bench, unconscious. I'd put a blanket over him so you could believe he was sleeping . . . I shuddered.

Wufei leapt on the motion immediately. "Honeymoon over?" he suggested.

"Shut up," I snarled. "You know nothing about this, Chang Wufei. Nothing at all!"

I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing Wufei back down. Well, I can be vicious when I'm in a bad mood, and right then I was feeling particularly nasty. 

"And if we've got that settled," I continued. "Would you mind filling me in on the change of plans?"

Trowa answered. "Winner household was attacked tonight by persons unknown. There have been at least five casualties and great loss of property. The whereabouts of most of the family are unknown."

It was a shock to have someone else's tragedy to think of. "Heero's friend?"

"Unaccounted for," Wufei answered, sounding quiet. 

There was only one thing to do in these circumstances. We went out to get smashing drunk.

"Love sucks," I said, wobbling sideways. 

Trowa picked me up again. "Try and concentrate on walking."

I was more interested in sharing my epiphany. "Love _sucks._ You think it's all great, right? Not true. Want to know what it is?"

"Duo, watch the stairs."

"Screw the stairs," I said grandly. "Love's a gigantic joke, you know that? A big joke. And the punch line's not even funny."

Trowa sighed. "Remind me not to let you get drunk again. How did you manage that, anyway? I had the same number of drinks as you and I'm fine."

"I kept switching our drinks," I said happily. "Anyway, you're not listening. Don't ever fall in love. It's no fun at all."

"Right. And I suppose making sure you get home safely is fun." Trowa sighed again. "How did Wufei talk me into this?"

"What's love anyway?" I said, charitably ignoring Trowa's less than generous attitude. "You meet this groovy Asian guy with a great body and he's interested and then, bam! He turns out to be Wufei."

Trowa snickered. "Oh yes. And what happens after that?"

"Then you meet a hot Asian guy who has the bonus of having a likeable personality an' you think, this could be it. But is it?"

"And is it?" Trowa asked. 

"I don't know! Howard said one day when I'm grown up etc, I'd meet someone special and that would be that. He didn't cover robots or walking armaments. Hell, he barely covered sex. If Sally hadn't decided to—uh—what's the word?"

"Enlighten you?" Trowa suggested with a smile.

"I'd still think it was a mechanical operation." I snorted. "Friction caused by the interplay of two bodies, indeed!"

Trowa laughed a long time. "And I thought being raised by a knife-thrower was bad. Cathy may be a witch when she's mad, but at least she's not a mechanic."

"Laugh it up, all you like," I said with as much dignity as I could muster. "This happens to be my life."

"Sorry."

"You should be. I happen to be in great personal turmoil," I sniffed, pulling away from him and wobbling homeward on my own. "At a time like this, it would be nice to have to support of my friends, but no, nobody cares that my boyfriend makes a nuclear warhead look like a Roman candle."

"I don't even know what you're on about, but come here Duo. You can't walk home by yourself."

"No!" I stabbed a finger at him. "You don't really care and you're not sorry one bit! You can stand there as smug as you like now, but let me warn you—true love is not just going to suddenly fall into your life and make everything perfect—"

Thud!

"Ow—"

"Ouch. Oh, goodness, I'm sorry!"

I watched as the blond scrambled off Trowa hastily trying to help him upright.

"I'm so unbelievably sorry—"

I looked at the blond's clothes (clean and apparently pricey) and then up, trying to work out where he'd fallen from. Nothing was immediately apparent. I looked back to where the blond was brushing dust off Trowa's coat (a losing battle). 

"—terribly sorry, I was running and I slipped. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Nothing to speak of," Trowa said. "I didn't catch your name?"

"Oh, what a relief! I would hate to have hurt you—" The blond beamed at Trowa, then faltered. "I'm afraid I have to go now—"

"But wait—" Trowa sent him an agonized look as the blond turned and started to hurry away. "You can't go! I—just met you!"

"I can't stay. I can't explain, but it's dangerous. There are people after me. I'm sorry—" The blond hesitated then turned and ran away. 

"Well, that was interesting," I remarked.

"Duo! Please—make him come back!"  
I blinked. "What?"

"Make him—"

"I heard! What makes you think I can stop him?"

"You've got more experience with upsiders, you can talk to him. Please Duo?" Trowa looked anxiously after the blond. "You know what will happen if we let him go--"

The pleasantly fuzzed feeling of the alcohol had worn off fast (trust Jarvis to water down the drinks) and I could imagine only too vividly what would happen to the upsider if we let him continue on his merry way. Sighing, I went after him. 

It was easy to catch up with him. He'd slowed down once out of our sight, and stuck to the well lit areas. Catching up with him without his knowledge was easy. 

"So," I said, materialising at his elbow. "New to the downside? Let me give you a hint. Avoid the light—if you can see you can be seen."

The blond stopped. "Please, don't follow me. I don't want to endan—"

"Endanger us, I heard. But what about yourself?" I said conversationally. "Your clothes are far too clean. Anyone can tell you don't belong here. And you're alone. I'm surprised you got this far without being robbed and killed."

The blond stopped and stared at me. "Killed?"

"Out of the light," I instructed him, pulling him over to a corner. "Yeah, life's a bit rougher down here. What happened—shuttle crash?"

He hesitated. "I can't say."

"Not too trusting—that's good," I said. "At least that fall didn't knock you stupid."

He bristled. "Thanks for your help, but I'll take it from here." He walked off, his shoulders set.

"Oh really?" I said, leaning back against the cracked wall. "Do you even know where you're going?"

He turned around. For the first time there was a hint of doubt in his eyes. "I—I don't—"

"Come back with us," I said. "We know the landscape, we can hide you so that whoever you're afraid of can't find you. Ya don't have to trust us—but you can stay with us till you get your bearings so to speak."

"I don't know—" the blond said slowly.

"Please come with us." Trowa stepped out of the shadows startling the blond. I shook my head, with reflexes that bad, he would not have lasted more than five minutes on his own. "I couldn't bear to think of you on your own out there—"

The upsider stared at him, then slowly turned pink. "All right," he said.

All right? I shot a look at Trowa who was becoming a similar colour. 

"Oh great," I muttered. "This is just what I need."

It was a good thing we reached the Sweeper's fort and Sally's infirmary quickly. If I'd have had to endure any more of the looks passing between Trowa and the upsider I'd have been sick. 

"Let Sally look at your ankle. If it is sprained, a bandage will stop it getting worse—"

"You don't think she'll mind?"

"Believe me, Sally lives to put bandages on people, the more the better," I said sourly. I was getting the starts of a headache. 

Quatre looked enquiringly at Trowa. 

"Ignore him," Trowa said. "He's a little grumpy because his boyfriend turns out to be more robotic than human—"

There was a gasp from our visitor. 

"Heero? You know where Heero is?"

Trowa and I exchanged glances. 

"—maybe," I hedged.

The upsider suddenly became commanding. "Take me to him right away. It's of the utmost importance."

Several things went click. 

"You're not Quatre Winner by any chance?" I said. 

He looked at me suspiciously. "You have me at a disadvantage, Mr—"

"Maxwell will do."

Trowa was frowning at me furiously. I ignored him.

"Well then Mr Maxwell, perhaps you'll be so kind as to take me to Heero."

"If you insist," I replied.

"I do." His reply had danger in it. 

"Very well." I led the way back to workroom 7. "Wait here," I ordered at the door. 

Trowa caught me by the elbow. "Why are you doing this?" he hissed at me. "You're acting like you've been asked to help a copper."

"I don't like him," I said shortly. "And he doesn't like me."

"Don't be silly," Trowa said. "There's nothing not to like about him. And why wouldn't he like you?"

"He just doesn't," I said. "It's something to do with Heero."

I pulled away from Trowa and slipped into workroom 7. "Heero? You awake?"

"Duo?" I was wrapped in a tight hug. "Duo—"

I blinked in surprise. "Heero? What's wrong?" 

"I thought you were dead—I woke up in the workroom alone, and I couldn't remember what had happened and I thought that if you were alive you would have come for me and you hadn't so I thought—and after all Howard does talk about using me for spare parts so when I found myself in here—"

"It's all right. It's all right," I whispered, stroking his hair. "I'm safe, you're safe—"

For the moment at least.

"You mean it? You're not hurt?" Heero took my face in his hands and brushed my hair back gently. "You're really all right?"

I don't think anyone had touched me so gently before. "You're back—" I said softly. "You're my Heero—"

"What do you mean?" asked Heero. "What happened?"

I stared at him. "You don't remember?"

"The light," Heero said. "We were going to turn it off. I was going to cover you. After that—I don't remember anything."

I swallowed. "You—Heero—"

Inexplicably, I felt tears welling up. Me, Duo Maxwell, who never cries, was getting teary for the second time in the same week—

"What's wrong?" Heero asked, gently patting my cheek.

"I'm afraid," I choked, clinging onto him. "I'm so afraid—"

_____________

TBC.


	3. crashed 3.

__Crashed 3/?__  
  
By girl_starfish  
  
-----------------------------------------------------  
  
Disclaimer: Storyline mine, characters belong to whoever owns Gundam Wing. No profit involved, more's the pity.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------  
  
What had once been the finest residence in the upside lay in rubble, smoke still weaving its way in and out of the charred remains. Two figures walked through the smoky maze, one grinning in cruel satisfaction, the other with a rose scented handkerchief to his nose.  
  
"I must congratulate you, Treize! It looks like the job was done pretty thoroughly."  
  
"No thanks to me, J. Une is the one you should direct your praise towards."  
  
As if one cue the sharp click of the Colonel's military boots could be heard approaching them. "Gentlemen," she bowed.  
  
"We're waiting with anticipation to hear your report. It went well?"  
  
"Yes sir. They were caught entirely by surprise. We've eliminated all who might have been involved in the investigation into J's files. No one remains who knows of your plans."  
  
"Very good." Treize appeared ready to leave.  
  
"And Quatre?" J remained where he was.  
  
"Winner's son? What about him?"  
  
"He was Heero's friend. It's likely that he knows."  
  
"He eluded us at first, but some of my soldiers found him and chased him as far as the downside."  
  
"The downside?" Treize shook his head. "Poor child. Well, we need not worry any further about that particular problem. The downside is sure to have taken care of him for us."  
  
J smirked. "Serves him right. Little brat was always trying to undermine my influence over Heero."  
  
Lady Une nodded. "I called off the search for him after two of the twelve soldiers I had searching for him were killed. If my elite forces can't defend themselves down there, Winner's spoilt heir won't have lasted more than five minutes."  
  
"A drink then?" Treize suggested. "To the success of this venture--and others?"  
  
The other two agreed happily.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
Heero.  
  
Although I had never been what one might term charitably, much less affectionately, inclined towards my care-giver, I'd never felt dislike towards him so strongly as in this instant. How could he have left me so poorly equipped when placed in a situation such as this? Duo was leaking fluid at an alarming rate and all I could do was hold him and rather stupidly repeat "It's all right."  
  
It was not all right.  
  
Something had made Duo extremely upset. And I meant extremely--he'd been cocky throughout robbing J, then dived several storeys without a second thought. Howard giving him the gun had thrown him, but he'd accepted it without a hint of unease. Now . . . he was afraid?  
  
This could not be a good sign.  
  
I pulled Duo towards me and kissed him once on the forehead.  
  
"Tell me," I said. "What happened."  
  
He nodded, seemingly calmer. "The battle. I got the light off. You protected me--you don't remember?"  
  
"Not at all. Did I get hurt?"  
  
Something in Duo's face tightened. "You sure--you don't remember?"  
  
"Nothing. Did I do something wrong?"  
  
"I'll say you did!" Duo yelled. "Heero, you jerk! You moron! You complete and utter twit! You deliberately went and protected me, all the while very selfishly putting yourself in danger, you, you--"  
  
As Duo's vocabulary slipped into the more profane I frowned in puzzlement. After all, unless I was missing something, Duo was being unnecessarily aggrieved.  
  
"I don't understand," I confessed, once he'd stopped hurling expletives. "I risked myself to protect you. Shouldn't that reassure you--to know I regard you so highly?"  
  
"Idiot! I love you! The entire time you were out there I was worried something was going to happen to you! It was torture!" Duo paused, a little breathless after his admission. I was equally thrown.  
  
"You love me?"  
  
"Yeah." Duo's breath was a little shaky.  
  
"You love me," I repeated.  
  
Quatre had told me love was the term used for the deepest kinds of affection. J had told me it was a weak notion perpetuated by fools.  
  
Duo loved me.  
  
I took my time responding. I did not want to spoil this most precious of moments. "That is why you are angry--and afraid?"  
  
Duo nodded. "I've never felt this strongly about anyone before," he confided softly, resting his head against my chest. "It scares me--but that's not as bad as the thought of anything happening to you. I couldn't bear it if--"  
  
"I feel the same way about you," I told him. "You don't have parts I can replace, or a pattern of behaviour I can predict. If something went wrong-- " I shook my head. I would not let that happen--  
  
"I guess I'll let you off acting like a jerk--this time," Duo said waggling a warning finger at me. "But you do it again and I personally will use your parts to make a coffee grinder."  
  
I smiled at him. "Why a coffee grinder?"  
  
"Hey!" Duo shrugged. "It was the worst fate I could think of at short notice. Have you seen the state of Howard and the guys' coffee grinder? I don't think that thing has been cleaned once in its entire existence--"  
  
"A truly terrifying threat. I shall bear that in mind."  
  
I felt a flush of warm happiness as Duo laughed. It meant something to know I'd made him smile. "So are we all right then?"  
  
Duo hesitated. "Not quite. That's kinda just the tip of the iceberg."  
  
"That doesn't sound good," I said.  
  
"You would not believe--" Duo broke off as there was a thud at the door. There were voices, muted, from the corridor.  
  
"--let Maxwell handle this. I understand Heero was hurt--"  
  
"He's hurt? Then I've got to see him!"  
  
"Just wait, Quatre."  
  
"Fine. But it has been an awfully long time--"  
  
Duo motioned to me to remain silent and tiptoed over to the door. I grinned as he flung it open, causing the two people on the other side to fall in a heap as their means of support disappeared.  
  
Duo smirked. "Why Trowa, I always thought you were a second date kind of guy--"  
  
"Shut up," the tall guy with the long fringe said, hastily pulling himself away from--  
  
"Quatre?"  
  
"Oh, Heero! I'm so glad to have found you!"  
  
I grinned as Quatre hugged me. I had missed my best friend a good deal. "You came looking for me?"  
  
"Not exactly, although I have been searching for you." Quatre ended the hug, looking at me seriously. "Heero, I've got something very important to tell you."  
  
"Tro--you can't leave us a moment, can you? This is kinda--personal," Duo asked.  
  
The lanky Trowa looked startled but after a wistful glance at Quatre, he left. I raised an eyebrow--what was going on there?--but didn't have time to make inquiries. Duo and Quatre were looking at each other as if they would happily rend the other limb from limb.  
  
"I do not believe this matter is any concern of yours, Mr Maxwell," Quatre said.  
  
"I believe it is," Duo replied just as coolly. "At any rate, fancy pants, I already know."  
  
"And just what exactly is it you think you know?"  
  
"Come on!" Duo snorted. "Heero can't be packing two dirty secrets, can he?"  
  
Dirty secrets? I thought indignantly. However, I realised I had to act now before their little spat became open warfare.  
  
"Quatre? If it's all right with you I'd like Duo to stay. After all, whatever it is will probably affect him just as much as me."  
  
Quatre did not look as though it was all right with him but acquiesced. "Fine then. Heero--everything about your life up till now has been a lie."  
  
Trust Quatre to be dramatic.  
  
"What do you mean?" I said.  
  
"He means that J conveniently forgot to tell you couple of things," Duo said conversationally. "For example, along with your regular parts needed for everyday life, he included enough weaponry to take over a small nation."  
  
I blinked. "What?"  
  
"Not how I would have put it," Quatre conceded. "But accurate nonetheless. Heero--J made you with money supplied by the Kushrenada Institute. Their intention was to create a perfect weapon--a soldier with the strength and capability of a machine but with the reasoning power and creativity of a human--and none of the compassion."  
  
My skin chilled. "No."  
  
"During the battles--you weren't acting like yourself," Duo said. "You were- -kinda machinelike. You said something about an 'operative mode soldier'."  
  
"I don't remember any of this at all," I said, growing steadily more concerned.  
  
"Let me guess--you, when you were with J, you often had times like this when you couldn't remember anything," Duo said.  
  
I hesitated. "Now that you mention it--he said it was a normal occurrence, I shouldn't be concerned."  
  
"And yet you told me your memory was more accurate than any computer's--" Duo frowned. "That's probably when he trained you--"  
  
Damn it--it was so clear when Duo made me think about it--  
  
"How could I have been so blind? J--I trusted him--"  
  
"How could you know?" Quatre consoled me. "As far as you knew, it was normal behaviour."  
  
I still wanted to beat myself up. Or J. Come to think of it, I'd settle for J.  
  
"What else didn't he tell me?" I demanded. "If he didn't think I needed to know that he'd used me to create some sort of killing machine or should be able to have a serious relationship or sex, what else did he leave out?"  
  
"Discretion, maybe," Duo sighed, while Quatre turned an interesting shade of pink. "Heero, we gotta work on that."  
  
Work--a new thought occurred to me. I turned to Duo. "Could you remove the parts?"  
  
Duo blinked. "Heero--J built them right into you. I couldn't do that without taking everything apart--I'd have to build you a new body--I don't know if I could acquire the parts! Not to mention putting you back together again--I've got some more bad news."  
  
"The internal battery?"  
  
Duo nodded. "I tweaked it the best I could, but I can't fix the wiring here. We need someone with more specialised equipment. I do know a guy--" he grimaced. "We don't get on."  
  
"Your internal battery?" Quatre asked. "What happened?"  
  
I explained briefly what I'd gathered from Duo and what my own sensors told me. Quatre was horrified.  
  
"This sort of thing happens a lot down here?"  
  
"You could say that," Duo stifled a yawn.  
  
I was instantly concerned. "You depleted your energy stores in the battle-- you should be resting."  
  
"I'm fine," Duo protested. "I'm not the guy who just had the shock of his life."  
  
"Although I must admit you do seem to be taking this rather calmly," Quatre said. "Are you all right?"  
  
I considered that statement carefully. "I've just been informed that a good deal of my body has without my knowledge been fitted with a large amount of arms and you ask me if I'm all right? Quatre, that is quite possibly the most inane statement I've ever heard you say--"  
  
"Although some of the connection work is downright sloppy," Duo muttered.  
  
Quatre and I looked at him.  
  
"I could reduce power use by 30% just by rerouting the side cannon to use the same connection as the retractable laser," he continued. "And man, those bolts are just begging to be tightened--"  
  
Quatre and I continued to stare.  
  
"What?" Duo protested as the weight of our looks got through to him. "I can't help it! I'm a mechanic!"  
  
"Perhaps you should go to bed," I suggested.  
  
Duo looked adorably reluctant.  
  
"I'll join you later," I said, and kissed him on the top of his forehead again.  
  
"Okay," he said, yawning again. "Night."  
  
I watched him go, smiling fondly. It was hard to let him out of my sight for even a minute, but I had things to talk to Quatre about.  
  
"Quatre--" I began.  
  
Quatre was also looking after Duo but he was frowning. "Just how did you meet him?"  
  
I blinked, a little taken back by the abrupt question and by Quatre's tone-- he was usually so polite.  
  
"He broke into J's apartment and--"  
  
"He was the one that kidnapped you?"  
  
Kidnapped me? "No," I replied coldly--what was Quatre thinking about Duo? "That was my idea."  
  
Quatre stared at me. "You mean you came here of your own free will?"  
  
"What is so surprising about that?" I demanded. "You're here."  
  
"Not entirely by choice," Quatre's calm faltered a moment.  
  
I was concerned. "What happened?"  
  
"Someone attacked my family tonight. They were armed, they gave us no warning, they just came in and--" Quatre shook.  
  
I put my hand on his shoulder gently. "I'm so sorry Quatre, I didn't know-- "  
  
"I'm not sure but I think we were attacked because someone found out we knew about you," Quatre continued, ignoring my sympathy. I think he felt that if he allowed himself to feel for a moment, he would not be able to carry on. "They targeted my father and the data collecting staff. I was chased and had to escape by climbing down one of the old lift shafts. They followed me and I had to keep running and somehow I ended up where Trowa and Maxwell found me."  
  
I said nothing, just pulled Quatre into a rough hug. I was horrified by what he had told me--but it was likely that my creators would chance attacking on of the upside's most influential families, in order to keep hidden what they'd created a super-weapon in me . . . More, I wanted to protect Quatre from that. It was the same feeling I'd felt towards Duo, less fervent, but just as strong--Quatre was a good person. He should not be hurt because of me.  
  
"I had to find you," Quatre said. "I had to tell you and warn you, and that was the only thing I could think about. But now--" His voice shook. "I don't know where to go, or what to do. I want to go home--"  
  
"You're safe now," I told him. "Howard is a good man, and the Sweepers will look after you. Or Wufei and Trowa will find you somewhere different to stay."  
  
"I can't stay here!"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Heero, have you even looked around this place? It's a dump!"  
  
"Well I'll admit, it is rather untidy, and the plumbing has a lot of room for improvement . . . food could be better too, and I really hope Duo was kidding about the rat population--but it has its good points too."  
  
"Such as?" Quatre asked sceptically.  
  
"J's not here," I answered promptly. "And Duo is."  
  
My friend frowned. "I don't like the hold he has over you."  
  
"What hold?" I asked coolly. "Duo is very special to me, and he cares about me a good deal." Exactly what Duo said I did not want to reveal to anyone. That was mine.  
  
"So he says." Quatre sighed. "Heero, I don't like to say this, but you've only known him a week. You know he's a thief, how do you know he hasn't been taking advantage of your naivety in emotional matters to make you feel obligated to him? He's thoroughly unsuitable for you, in temperament, upbringing and habit--"  
  
"What exactly do you mean by that?" I demanded, struggling to remain calm. Quatre was after all my friend, and trying to act in my best interests--  
  
"Well, compare the two of you! He's reckless and careless and, well, rude! And I know I smelt alcohol on him before--you don't need someone like that-- "  
  
"I disagree," I replied. "I happen to think I need someone like him very much. I may only have known him a week--but you've only known him a night. You can't say those things about him--you don't know whether they're true or not. I'm not going to argue with you because you've had a horrible experience, but if you ever speak to me about Duo that way again--" I turned away. "Goodnight, Quatre."  
  
Trowa was hovering outside the door. I nodded to him as I left--Quatre would need someone with him tonight, and Trowa seemed concerned for him. Duo spoke highly of him, so I was sure I could trust him to look after my friend, better than I could trust myself. Quatre's words still made me mad--  
  
Duo was curled up on the bed in his singlet and shorts. I changed to join him, smiling as he automatically snuggled up to me. I'd come to like the snug fit of the single bunk. But more--curling up next to Duo was coming home. I needed that. After everything that had happened, knowing I could still hold Duo while he slept was like--hot lemon drink to someone with a cold.  
  
I didn't turn off. Instead I kept my programmes running at a minimum so as not to disturb Duo, and let my thoughts return to our discovery. I would need a lot of time to process that.  
  
Hours later, I had, if not decided what to make of it, accepted it. I could see that it would change a lot of things. One thing was for certain, I would not return to J. The other thing I was sure about was Duo. I would not leave him--and I was reasonably certain he would remain with me. He hadn't spoken of leaving--in fact, he'd seemed quite concerned about me last night. He'd said 'we' when talking about getting me fixed--he'd said he loved me and he'd known about the weapons. I wasn't an expert on relationships, but I thought they were good signs.  
  
The rest--  
  
J was not going to give up looking for me. And whoever paid my bills was likely to wield considerable economic and political power--it was pure chance I'd lighted on the one hiding place they could not reach. But even the Sweepers could not hide us forever and Howard and the others did not deserve to be endangered on my behalf--  
  
We would have to find something else.  
  
Duo tossed fretfully against my chest. His breathing had quickened and I was concerned when he made an unhappy whimper--had he been hurt and concealed it?  
  
Although not outright dishonest, he was careless with his own safety. I decided the only way to be sure he was unharmed would be to check myself. I pulled back the blanket, relieved to see Duo's slender legs revealed unharmed. His arms were likewise undamaged, aside for a splattering of bruises along one upper arm. I ran my finger over them, dismayed--small as they were I did not like the fact that Duo was susceptible to harm--it invited possibilities I did not want to consider. What if he got seriously hurt--had to leave--  
  
I shoved those thoughts aside, lifting up Duo's singlet to check the skin beneath. All clear, although I checked for a bit longer than perhaps necessary. I did not see how I could check his back without waking him but thought that if he was sleeping on it, it could not be too badly hurt.  
  
That left his shorts.  
  
J had taught me never to leave a task unfinished. Although at odds with my former teacher, the habit was too deeply ingrained.  
  
That and I was curious.  
  
I pulled the shorts down slowly, hoping not to disturb Duo--pausing as he again moved restlessly. I gradually eased the boxers onto his thighs, leaving his parts clear. There was no sign of injury.  
  
I hesitated at replacing the boxers. Although I'd seen Duo's parts before-- briefly in the showers--I'd never had a chance to really examine them. I wanted to know what was so important about them.  
  
They were rather odd looking in my opinion--it was not readily apparent what the point of them was. But they were exceedingly soft to touch. Highly sensitive too apparently, as Duo's body jerked under my careful touch. He did not wake. After a moment, I proceeded again with my explorations.  
  
I made several discoveries. The first was that Duo could be remarkably vocal even while asleep. Further explorations had elicited a series of noises, the closest equivalent I could think of was the sort of mewing noise a cat makes when it wants something. What Duo seemed to want was my touches, his body sort of jerked up into them. The other thing was that I'd worked out what one of his parts was for. My investigation had stimulated flow of blood to this particular part, causing it to become swollen and hard. Touches to this part seemed to be what Duo wanted most. I was happy to oblige him, eager to acquire more knowledge about the processes involved in sex--until his hand seized mine.  
  
"Heero?" Duo looked up at me, panting slightly. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Um--" I hesitated, turning red. "I didn't realise you were awake."  
  
"That's not answering my question."  
  
I felt extremely guilty. "I was worried," I said hastily. "You made a sound and I thought you might be hurt so I decided to check but then when I checked your parts I though this might be a good opportunity to find out what was so special about them. Then you seemed to like it so I continued-- was that wrong?"  
  
"Not wrong exactly. No--parts of it were pretty good. But--you're going to have to stop that now."  
  
"Why?" I asked. "Don't you like it? I thought--"  
  
"I liked it, Heero. But--I don't think it's fair for me to have what you don't." Duo sat up, stroking the side of my face. "If you can't experience this, then I'm not going to either. It's both of us or nothing, understand?"  
  
I was delighted by his vehemence, and kissed him.  
  
Duo kissed back happily before pulling away with a sigh. "Damn, now I'm going to have to have a cold shower! Thanks, Heero."  
  
He didn't sound really grumpy.  
  
I stopped him from rising to match action to words by throwing a leg over his. "What if isn't possible? What if this is the closest we get?"  
  
"Heero--" Duo looked up at me, a kind of danger lidded in his eyes. "How much do you lo-care about me?"  
  
'Why?" I asked, feeling my heart speed up.  
  
"I know a way we can do this. Change you. It'll be dangerous."  
  
"I don't care."  
  
Duo nodded. "Then let's go now. Before Howard wakes up or I change my mind."  
  
___________  
  
tbc. 


	4. crashed 4.

Quatre followed Trowa down the corridor in silence. He was growing steadily more nervous. Despite his intuitive grasp of other people's feelings and his family's grasp of diplomacy, he had no idea how he was going to handle the upcoming meeting. It was rather a relief when Trowa stopped walking to ask, "Are you all right?"  
  
"No," the blond replied. "I mean I am, but I'm not--it's just--I don't know how to do this."  
  
"Heero's your friend, isn't he? It shouldn't matter what you say, you should know each other well enough to know what is meant."  
  
"That's just it--I made him angry last night. Heero--well, he's never gotten mad at me before."  
  
Trowa nodded. He'd wondered why the upsider had been left alone. Only one thing would explain that. As he continued to lead Quatre down the corridor, he said, "You should be careful how you talk about Duo. If Heero chose to give up the only life he'd known to be with him, they must care for each other a great deal."  
  
Quatre was surprised by Trowa's correct reading of the situation and his advice. "It proves that Heero cares. Duo--"  
  
"Trusted him enough to bring him back here to the Sweepers. That's a big risk, Quatre. The coppers prefer we all work in their factories and live in their housing. Communities like this one are thought of as little better than gangs. Any excuse to shut them down would be welcomed. Duo knows this-- he's not as careless as you think."  
  
Quatre didn't answer that immediately. He wanted to think that over carefully. If Trowa was right, and there was no reason to think he might not be, then Quatre had to accept the possibility that instead of using Heero, the braided downsider might be genuinely attached to him. If that was true--not only did he owe them an apology, but he had to accept the fact that Duo, whom he disliked, might well be around to stay. It was almost painful to accept that. Heero had been Quatre's best friend for so long--the prospect that he might lose him to a stranger hurt.  
  
Unless . . . he didn't have to lose him at all. "Trowa, you've known Duo a long time, haven't you?"  
  
Trowa nodded. "All my life, I think. We were both brought up at the church."  
  
"The church?"  
  
"Sister Helen and Father Maxwell look after it. They take in all the orphans, abandoned children, and do their best to take care of them. There was never enough to eat, so a lot of us kids went out and stole food for the rest. That's how I really got to know Duo. We had this rivalry thing going on--who could steal the most. He was faster and sneakier than anyone else, but I could get into places no one else could. Eventually we decided we could steal more if we joined forces--and the rest is history."  
  
Stealing food for survival. Quatre, who had always had plenty to eat, tried to take this into his mind. "What kind of a person do you think he is?"  
  
Trowa flashed him an interested look. "Why do you ask?"  
  
"I want to know him. If he and Heero are as fond of each other as they say, then I'll have to accept him too," the upsider explained.  
  
His companion smiled. "Don't let his mask full you. He's a lot more cautious and thoughtful than he acts."  
  
"His mask?"  
  
"Everyone down here uses one. When you have to struggle to just survive, then anything can be used against you. Most of us disguise who we are to protect ourselves. Duo acts like an idiot and people underestimate him, Wufei falls back on pride--there's a lot more to him than himself, you know. And as for me--I find not saying much at all is the best way to protect myself."  
  
"You're saying a lot now," Quatre pointed out.  
  
Trowa smiled. "I'm with you--and you're a rare person, Quatre. I feel I can trust you."  
  
Quatre glowed.  
  
Trowa pressed a button on a panel beside a door. "Duo's room," he explained.  
  
After a moment when nothing happened, Trowa frowned, pressing the button again. "Howard said he hadn't seen Duo all morning--he should be here."  
  
Quatre turned away from the 'Shinigami' sign on the door to watch as Trowa opened the door.  
  
The room revealed was small, rather cramped and held neither Heero nor Duo.  
  
Quatre looked from Trowa, who was hurriedly punching a number into the call pad by the door, back to the room's possessions. One unmade bunk bed, a few cardboard boxes containing clothes, and a cracked mirror were the only things that distinguished the room from a work room. Everywhere else, including the top of the bunk was crammed full with bits and pieces of machinery and tools. Quatre turned over a few of those nearest--he recognised one as some sort of spy camera--but with a difference. The camera was mounted on a spider like body. As he picked it up he noted the hooks implanted on the end of each leg, and a detachable radio transmitter.  
  
"Howard," Trowa said crisply into the wall-phone. "We may have a situation. Duo and Heero are gone."  
  
Quatre heard muffled swearing on the other end.  
  
"No, I don't know how long ago," Trowa continued. "His tool kit? I'll check- -" Trowa checked behind the door. "It's gone."  
  
"What's wrong?" Quatre asked. "If they're not here, where are they?"  
  
"That," Trowa said, leading the way out of the room, "is the problem."  
  
"We don't know where they've gone?"  
  
"Oh, I have an idea," Trowa sighed. "Duo said he couldn't fix Heero, right? There's only one person who Duo will admit is a better mechanic than he is-- so if he wants to get Heero fixed--"  
  
"Who is this person?" Quatre asked. "And where are they?"  
  
"That's the problem--G's the man. Sometimes gets parts and that from Wufei-- custom pieces only an expert would have use for. But he's paranoid--has this system by which and contact from him--e-mails, vid-phone, you name it-- are rerouted through so many channels there is no way of tracing it. The same with his deliveries. They go through so many routes and contacts there's no way of tracing him."  
  
"But Duo thinks he can?" Quatre was having to run to keep up with Trowa now. Without seeming to hurry, the lean downsider still managed to outpace him--  
  
"Duo did. Got curious one day, and managed to find him. Vanished for a couple of days and came back full of highly improbable tales. Apparently the guy is a cross between Dr. Frankenstein and Q from James Bond--he even uses a letter for a name. Duo said he had a laboratory Howard would give his soul for, and had been so impressed by one of the devices Duo used to track him down he'd offered to go into partnership with him."  
  
"His devices?" Quatre thought of the spider-camera. "Duo is an inventor?"  
  
"Dabbles in it. He's pretty good, not that we let on--He's big headed enough as it is."  
  
"So why didn't he? Join up with the scientist, I mean."  
  
"He was reluctant to talk about it. Said the guy gave him the creeps, didn't elaborate. I have a feeling there was more to it than that but Duo can be surprisingly taciturn when he makes an effort." Trowa led the way into a room where teams of Sweepers were already lining up.  
  
"--and the K team can take this section of the map here, L can check the med-centres--Trowa! Just the person I want to see!" Howard thumped him on the back. "Would you mind heading down to the church and seeing if Duo is there? And if he is give him a good talking to--"  
  
Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Quatre."  
  
"Why are we going?" Quatre asked as they left. "You said you thought Duo was with this scientist--"  
  
"Howard forbade Duo to go back there. If Heero and Duo aren't back in a couple of days I'll tell him what I suspect. It won't make any difference anyway--we have no way of finding them." Trowa paused as they reached the gate to the Sweepers' fort and could see the dark mess of buildings and rubble beyond. "It's a big world out there."  
  
------------------  
  
Duo.  
  
If you start me up  
  
If you start me up I'll never stop  
  
If you start me up  
  
If you start me up I'll never stop  
  
"Duo?"  
  
"Yeah, cutie?"  
  
"I don't mean to doubt you but--are we lost?"  
  
I laughed. "Nah, Heero, we're not lost."  
  
"Then why do we not seek this scientist? We're just standing here--"  
  
"Mad scientists generally don't have a front door people can walk right up to, Hee-baby. Specially not if they're paranoid old geezers--" I shrugged. "We may have to wait awhile."  
  
Heero looked around the shadowy alleyway. "Is there not somewhere more comfortable we could wait?"  
  
"Nah. This is like the gateway to G's patch. See, the buildings and tunnels here are what used to be some kind of sewer or something--they're so twisted and winding and that no one can navigate them without a guide, not even the people who live here. We've got no hope of finding G if he doesn't want us to."  
  
"So what do we do?"  
  
"Wait for a guide."  
  
"And G will send one?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, soon as he knows it's me, G'll send one for sure."  
  
Heero shifted closer to my side. "G regards you highly then?"  
  
"You could say that," I replied dryly. "Man, what's keeping the old loon? Hope he hasn't died or something--"  
  
Heero shifted nervously. "Do you think it's my presence? After all, if he is as paranoid as you say, he may not be ready to let a stranger into his laboratory."  
  
"Don't worry about it," I told him. "Trust me, G will love you. But--" I glared at the hidden camera--" Sometime today would be nice."  
  
Heero slid his arms round my waist, pulling me towards him.  
  
"What are you doing?" I asked.  
  
"Well, as long as we're waiting, we might as well do something productive," he told me, lips pressing against my cheek. "What do you think?"  
  
I grinned. "Sounds like a plan to me."  
  
/ I've been running hot  
  
You got me ticking gonna blow my top  
  
If you start me up  
  
If you start me up I'll never stop never stop never stop I'll never stop /  
  
"Oooh--" Heero's fingers skimmed my bare skin beneath my shirt. Without breaking the stream of our kisses, I pulled him closer, looping one arm around his neck and running the other through his hair. He reciprocated, pulling me against him, breaking apart just enough to turn his dizzy attentions to my neck instead. I sighed again as Heero teased my skin into a state of delicious excitement--  
  
Damn, but I was a good teacher!  
  
There was a persistent beeping sound by my ankle. I pulled my body out of Heero's embrace with reluctance. "Well, it looks like the cavalry's here."  
  
Heero stared. "That?"  
  
"What? It's a roving camera-bot--and it's going to be our guide. You know what I said about G being totally paranoid? I bet I'm the only person to have had any contact with him in decades. Uses computers for everything. I'm not kidding here--the guy's psycho."  
  
The bot beeped at me, the lights on its ungainly metallic body flickering. It sounded faintly reproachful.  
  
I snorted. "Let's get this show on the road then. After you, my dear bot," I said with a flourish.  
  
The bot trundled down the alley and into a previously obscured tunnel. I turned to Heero.  
  
"This is the point of no return, so to speak. You really want to go through with this?"  
  
Heero hesitated. "I'm nervous about this--but I want to be close to you--I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If this is the only way--then yes. I'm sure."  
  
I smiled at him and wrapped his fingers around mine. "Let's go."  
  
/ You make a grown man cry  
  
You make a grown man cry  
  
You make a grown man cry /  
  
Bits of rusty metal clung to the darkness, the lab's meagre power source illuminating only a cluster of tools. Bits scavenged from here and there, and often borrowed again to be used in something newer, the lab did not so much resemble a laboratory so much as the skeleton of one.  
  
The very much decomposed skeleton of one.  
  
"Duo," G leered at me from the recesses of his dark workroom. "What a pleasant surprise. I've been hoping you might come by. There's some things I've been working on that I think might interest you."  
  
"Yeah, well, hate to disappoint but this isn't really a social visit." I plonked myself down on a bench. "This is Heero."  
  
G and Heero looked at each other. It was like watching predators sizing each other up, or perhaps a couple of icebergs, if icebergs could glare.  
  
"Nice to meet you," Heero said.  
  
"Any friend of Duo's is welcome here," G said.  
  
You could have kept a freezer running on the tension in the air.  
  
"Heero's got a problem we hope you could help us with," I remarked. "Show him, Heero."  
  
Heero shot me a wary look but I nodded. Reluctantly he pulled his shirt up to expose the thin wiring beneath his plastic 'skin'.  
  
G drew a breath. "A robot? But he's so lifelike--"  
  
"I'm something of a new model," Heero said with a look in my direction. I nodded--we didn't want to tell G everything.  
  
"Looks like it took some damage." G frowned at the bullet hole in Heero's chest plate.  
  
"Punctured the internal battery. The fluids leaked, damaged the surrounding wiring. I've patched it but I don't have the equipment to redo the wiring." I shrugged flicking my braid back over my shoulder. "You do."  
  
G cackled, closing Heero's chest plate. "It'll cost you--you'll want to do a radio-reading of the damage done, and that takes a lot of energy, boy."  
  
"If it costs, it costs." I kept my voice strong. "Tell me your price and I'll consider it."  
  
"As it so happens--" G rummaged for a data file. "Take a look at this--my latest project."  
  
I pulled out my data pad and scanned the blue prints it brought up. "Impressive."  
  
Heero looked over my shoulder. "Is that a laser?"  
  
G raised an eyebrow. "It's familiar with weaponry?"  
  
"Hang up from a previous owner," I said shortly. "You want me to what?"  
  
"Oh, just play around with it. See if you can't tweak the power supply--and I've having trouble. A rapid fire mechanism should not be impossible and yet, I just can't seem to channel the power of the laser into it. I'm thinking--"  
  
I nodded as G ran over the technical difficulties. It would be tricky, but I could work it. The problem was, would I be able to live with myself if I did? "What do you want this laser for?"  
  
"Oh, no reason," G shrugged, feigning innocence. I narrowed my eyes.  
  
"Yeah right. This design is pretty complex--it took months. Now spill. What will you do with it?"  
  
"You know me too well," G chided. "I knew it was a mistake letting you see my workrooms. But you're right, I do have an ulterior motive in mind. You see, there will be a war. And we have to be prepared to defend ourselves against the enemy."  
  
"Enemy?" asked Heero uncertainly.  
  
I frowned at him, it didn't do to encourage G's madness. "Defence then?"  
  
"But of course," G said quickly--far too quickly.  
  
I sighed. Giving weapons of mass destruction to a loony like G was probably not a good idea but what choice did we have? "Fine--but for that price, I may as well throw in a little something extra as well."  
  
/ Spread out the oil, the gasoline  
  
I walk smooth, ride in a mean, mean machine  
  
Start it up /  
  
Heero gave an almost pleading look. He looked rather nervous, strapped down to the operating table, so to speak, his head turned towards me. I finished adjusting the spotlight, and, with a surreptitious look to check that G was occupied, slipped over to his side.  
  
"Are you okay?" I pushed his fringe out of his eyes.  
  
"I don't feel very well," he admitted.  
  
"You'll be just fine, trust me--G may be odd but he's a fair mechanic. And I'll be here too--so you know you have nothing to worry about."  
  
Heero snorted. "I will be very glad when this is over."  
  
I leaned into him, tracing the curve of his face with a finger. "Likewise, sweet." I bent down to claim his lips--  
  
"Are the lights done?" G called, from somewhere amongst the mountainous recesses of his machines.  
  
I jumped away from Heero. "All set," I said, quickly. "All we got to do is turn the robot off and we're ready to go."  
  
Heero caught my eyes as I opened his chest panel and found his off switch. "Love you," he mouthed.  
  
"You're not going to stand there forever are you?" G reached over my shoulder and flicked the switch, plunging Heero into unconsciousness. I think I managed to wipe away my tears before the scientist saw them.  
  
"Right then," I said. "Let's get this show on the road."  
  
/ If you start it up  
  
Kick on the starter give it all you got, you got, you got /  
  
"I need another batch of wire."  
  
"A moment, I'll have to go to the storeroom. Take it easy on this lot, will you? Gundanium isn't common, you know."  
  
"So, I'll have Wufei find you some more." I wiped a sweaty hand across my forehead. G and I had been working as intensively as any surgeons repairing Heero's damaged chest. Now that we had the right equipment it was straightforward but a lengthy process nonetheless, complicated by the fact that I couldn't let G guess what capabilities Heero disguised, while needing his knowledge to help with the . . . other problem.  
  
"Well, here's the wire. This is the last of what I've got--I hope your friend doesn't decide to catch any more bullets."  
  
"I'm thinking of adding additional shielding around his batteries here and here--" I traced my hand over Heero's chest, now cool in his deactivated mode.  
  
"A good suggestion," G nodded. "Now what was the other thing you needed my help with?"  
  
I hesitated. I would owe G big for this--  
  
But didn't Heero and me deserve it?  
  
/ I can't compete with the riders in the other heats /  
  
G whistled. "You want him to feel it too?"  
  
I nodded. "Everything."  
  
G wiped his hands on a rag absently as he replied. "Odd request that--or it would be if we were  
  
talking robots here."  
  
I froze, braid tip caught between my fingertips as I stared at G.  
  
He smirked. "Oh, I recognised J's handiwork long ago, my dear. I'm ugly, not blind, Duo--or did you think I was so mad I would not recognise my old partner's handiwork?"  
  
"You and J were partners?" I squeaked. My voice had all but vanished at this point.  
  
"You didn't know?" G seemed to swell. "The best years of my life I spent helping that bastard with his experiments--I put in as much if not more time as he did, let him use my innovations and for what? Was I given co- credit, a cut of the profit?"  
  
"No?" I guessed.  
  
"Hah! Guess that's what our friendship was worth--Kushrenada's backing and bank-balance. J will learn to regret the day he ripped me off--" G suddenly seemed to recollect himself. "So tell me,  
  
Heero is one of J's projects?"  
  
"Human-cyborg mix."  
  
G nodded. "I worked on the prototypes--in fact the formula for the skin used on Heero is one of mine."  
  
"You're kidding," I said.  
  
"No, J and I have been involved in the field of robotic parts for humans since we were undergraduates. Those were the days--before my best friend tried to discredit then murder me."  
  
G grimaced again. "I will find a way to get rid of J and return to the upside again--I will see my work recognised!"  
  
Barmy, I decided. Still--that could be useful. "You know, if you help me make those changes, it will really piss J off--"  
  
"How so?" G fixed me with an appraising look. "I thought it ran more in the way of satisfying teenage hormones--"  
  
"J designed Heero as this perfect soldier--trained him not to have any emotions, any weaknesses--missed out a couple of pertinent parts so that he could never be tempted by sex right? Well--"  
  
"You'll make him human," G cackled suddenly. "He'll be human! J--J will go mad! I love it!" He suddenly seized my hand. "I'll give you all the help you need. This is better revenge than I could ever have imagined--I'll help you for nothing."  
  
I grinned, shaking his hand back. "G man, we got a deal."  
  
/ If you rough it up  
  
If you like it you can slide it up, slide it up, slide it up, slide it up, slide it up /  
  
"Well, I got a lot of weird looks, a couple of offers I don't even want to think about, and I think my reputation has been forever tarnished, but I got the parts." I dumped the sack on the floor and strolled over to where G was hunched over Heero. "Man if Howard ever finds out I've been trawling through sex clubs--"  
  
"I'm in the middle of some brain surgery here, Duo," G answered. "A little less noisy, if you please?"  
  
"Sorry," I whispered back, tip toeing over to peer over G's shoulder. "How's it going?"  
  
"Very well," G said distractedly. "Just embedding the radio receiver-- sensation from his newly installed parts will feed into the receiver which will then transmit--"  
  
"Directly to his brain, I know, I've spent the last three days working this out with you." I peered anxiously at my Heero, partly dismantled and still, lying as if dead on the operating table. I hated to see him like this, hated it--  
  
Three days in which we hadn't spoken, three days in which Heero had been as lifeless as a robot--  
  
"Oh," said G.  
  
"Oh?" I said worriedly.  
  
"Look at this--there's already some kind of transmitter in here. Look at it- -controlling his memory functions."  
  
"What the hell would J--" I stared. "Operative mode soldier!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Never mind, just get rid of it! Heero doesn't need it!"  
  
G carefully removed the device, placing it carefully to one side for later study while attaching our bug in its place. "There. I have to patch this on, resume blood flow, and Heero will be as good if not better than new!"  
  
"How long?" I asked.  
  
"A couple of hours. Course we still have to add those new parts you acquired--"  
  
I nodded turning to fetch the bag. My heart was racing. In a matter of hours Heero could be reactivated--but would he be my Heero? Would he reactivate at all?  
  
/ Don't make a grown man cry  
  
Don't make a grown man cry  
  
Don't make a grown man cry /  
  
Tbc.  
  
/ Italics-lyrics 'Start It Up-The Rolling Stones' / 


	5. crashed 5

____Crashed 5____

by girl_starfish

------------------------------------------------

Wufei groaned and buried his head in his pillow. He should have known better than to drink so much last night. He should have known better than to drink at all--But Duo--

Duo had been gone for five days. And worse, Heero was with him. Wufei was beginning to think he'd been mistaken in assuming their relationship was temporary. Distressingly, Trowa seemed certain it wasn't, telling the blond who'd appeared rather inexplicably as Trowa's second shadow at great length why he thought Heero and Duo were a couple. Wufei had drunk a bit more than usual, switching drinks with Trowa, in order to try to reassure himself, a tactic which had rather notably failed. He now had not only no guarantee that Duo was even interested in him, and a ringing head---

Wait a minute, that wasn't his head. It was the wall phone. 

Wufei stumbled out of bed and managed to thump the wall panel.

"Chang here."

"Have you heard from Howard?"

Wufei winced. Trust Trowa to go on a drinking expedition and still wake up early the next morning in time to make horribly loud calls to people. "No. Why?" Faint hope clutched at him, even through his hung-over state. "Has there been news?"

"Not the kind we've been hoping for. Something's wrong. I passed a man in a Sweeper's uniform this morning and I swear I've never seen him before."

"So? Maybe you made a mistake."

"I didn't. He walked right in front of me, and I was expecting him to say something to me--you know all the Sweepers do--so when he didn't, I noticed. And that's not all."

"You're kidding."

Wufei's sarcasm went unnoticed. 

"Quatre recognised him--as one of the men who was chasing him."

"Why was Quatre being chased?" Wufei asked.

"That's not important now. Only, Howard and the others aren't letting anyone inside the fort, and aren't answering their calls."

"Maybe they went out last night and want to sleep in," Wufei suggested, rubbing his head.

"Quatre and I are going to come over," Trowa said. "I think we should investigate this."

"Great," Wufei said as Trowa, taking silence for approval, hung up. 

He mulled the situation over and decided the best course of action would be to go back to bed, and face the situation when his head no longer felt like it was housing an Ozzy Osbourne concert.

-----------------------------------------

Heero.

__

/ My eyes dilate, my lips go green   
My hands are greasy   
She's a mean, mean machine   
Start it up /

I blinked, wincing at the light in front of me, blindingly bright. 

Where was I?

My head felt strangely light, my thoughts somehow weightless--I would have thought I dreamed still if not for the harsh glare of the light. The pain was only too real. I shielded my eyes with a hand--for some reason that brought back a faint memory. 

For some reason not so long ago I'd been restricted--what had changed?

I tried out the rest of my limbs--none of them seemed to be tied back. Apart from a stiffness in my limbs and a slight dizziness when I sat up, I seemed to be fine. Sitting up I made two further discoveries. One, I had been draped in a sheet--my sitting up had dislodged it. The other--an addition of some importance had been made to my hardware. 

"Duo," I said immediately, as memories came rushing back. We'd gone to get help from a man who was disturbingly like J, and then--

Looking around I recognised I was in the room I remembered as G's workroom. I was alone, if you didn't count the humming camera bots crawling over the walls and through the corridors outside. Duo had explained them by saying that G was so paranoid he spied on himself, for which the scientist had pulled on his braid. That had been shortly before I'd been placed on the operating table--

I decided to locate Duo and discover from him what had transpired while I was unconscious. 

I kicked the sheet out of the way and startled several camera bots out of their set routes as I set off down the dimly lit corridor. I could smell a faintly burnt odour emanating from an open doorway and followed it, finding myself in a combined kitchen/living space. While G scraped some sort of blackened substance from the bottom of a saucepan, Duo held up a small object up to the light.

"You sure this isn't anything important?"

"I'm sure," G said irritably. "Look, if it bothers you so much, why don't you take it apart and see what it--hello--"

"Heero!" Duo squeaked as he caught sight of me. "You're up! I mean--oh god--"

G cackled. "Not quite!" he leered.

I looked from one to the other, puzzled. What was so amusing and why had Duo gone red? "Is something wrong?"

"I think it's time to introduce the concept of modesty," Duo said, grabbing my hand and pulling me hastily out of the room. "Where's your sheet?"

"The workroom." I was rather bemused as Duo proceeded to wrap said sheet around my waist. 

"Is something wrong with my parts?"

"No--far as I can tell they're fine." Duo was still far from his usual hue.

"Then what is the purpose of the sheet?"

"You--well, you know. You can't just walk around naked, Heero."

"Why not? I have no need for heat and apart from aesthetic purposes, I see no reason--"

"Don't you feel a bit weird? You know--naked maybe?" Duo sighed. "I guess without parts you didn't have a reason for modesty."

"So this is related to my parts?" I guessed.

"Mostly. Genitalia isn't something most people want to display."

I felt offended. "My parts do not appeal to you?"

"No, no, they do! That's the problem!"

If Duo got any redder I would have to fetch him a glass of water. "How is that a problem? I thought they were designed to attract you into having sex with me."

"You don't mince your words, do you?" Duo sighed. "Attract me, yes. Other people--no."

This was starting to make sense. Duo had said that relationships where partners shared their bodies with each other were usually exclusive and I had definitely not wanted to share him with Wufei--so perhaps seeing my parts was something that should be reserved only for Duo? That conclusion worried me--had I accidentally broken some sort of relationship rule? Would Duo be disgusted with me?

"I'm sorry," I said. "I did not know."

"Course you didn't," Duo sighed, stroking my cheek. "I forget sometimes what a lot you never got taught."

"You're not mad at me?" I said hopefully. 

Duo wrapped me in a kiss so tight it was all I could think about. When he broke apart I was panting. "Does that feel like I'm mad at you? Man, Heero, I've missed you so much!"

I smiled at him shyly. "I think my parts are working."

Duo stared at me, then looked down my sheet. "Oh, yeah--they're working all right." He looked up at my face again, also somewhat nervous. "Ya wanna do something about that?"

I blushed. "Thorough testing should form a part of any new developments," I said to cover my embarrassment.

"I think I can arrange that," Duo took my hand again. "Follow me."

__

/Start me up   
Give it all you got   
You got to never, never, never stop   
Start it up /

I sat on the mattress on the floor of what Duo termed 'G's "guest" room'--I did not want to know what kind of guests G expected--watching as Duo methodically chased the roving spy-cams out the door. There were a few of them and they seemed reluctant to go. Judging by the names Duo was calling their creator, he did not think this was accidental. 

"Do you think you got all of them?" I asked as Duo came to sit next to me on the mattress and began digging through his bag. 

"Nah, but my jammer should take care of anything else G's got stashed in here--it blocks all kinds of recording devices. So take that!" Duo flicked a switch triumphantly and set his invention aside. 

"I'm sorry," I said, as Duo began setting candles up on the spaces surrounding the mattress. 

"What for?" Duo asked absently.

"For causing this." I waved towards the closed door and the spiders behind it. "G is interested because he saw my parts, isn't he?"

"Now there is an unwelcome mental image--thanks a lot, Heero!" Duo grimaced. "Ewww!"

"What are you doing?" I asked. 

"Lighting candles." 

"Why? We have an adequate light source."

"It's not about lighting, it's about atmosphere. Romance." Duo finished with the candles. 

"I do not see the point," I admitted. "This is a pre-copulation ritual?"

Duo threw the matches across the room. "No! This is not about sex! Well it is, but it's not just about sex, dammit! I want this to be special, not just sex because we can--and look at this place! A mattress on a floor in a store-room, for Pete's sake!"

I was touched. "You're talking about love and not sex then?" I asked, pulling Duo towards me and kissing his forehead. 

"Yes," he replied. "Couples often do things to show each other how much they appreciate each other. Flowers, chocolates, candle-lit dinners, dancing, the works." He sighed, looking up at me with a wry expression. "I managed the candle-lit part."

I kissed him soundly. "I like them. They are a nice touch."

"You haven't seen them yet." Duo pulled away from me to turn off the light at the door.

Myriad tiny flames jumped in the dark, pools of light dancing across the room. I was delighted. 

"Duo--"

"Ya like?"

"Very much." I stood, admiring the light way he stepped among the candles as he made his way back to the mattress. "Can I get rid of the sheet now?"

Duo smiled, alluring in the half light. "Be my guest."

__

/ (Start it up) 

Never, never   
You make a grown man cry

You make a grown man cry

You make a grown man cry /

My body was fairly humming, both from the sensations rushing through it, and from the effort of cataloguing them all. I didn't want to forget a bit of this--sure, there'd been moments of awkwardness when Duo had had to explain what you did with certain parts, but they were of no importance next to the reality of being with Duo. 

I was pressing Duo into the mattress, wrapped in his arms as he tried to bring the two of us even closer together. He'd surrendered the dominant position to me, saying that he thought I should have control over how fast and far we went, given that I was the one whose parts we were testing, and so that I would not be overwhelmed by the whole experience. I found the suggestion more endearing than useful--I did not see what difference being in charge made. We'd been equals in the relationship so far, I wanted that to continue. Who was in charge of our sex-life didn't matter much to me, so long as there was more of it. 

Duo seemed to think so too, gathering from the rather incoherent responses he made as we proceeded. I don't think anything could have made this experience better, than sharing it with Duo--the fact that he'd chosen to wait to be able to share this with me made my heart fill with warmth--

I was Duo's equal, we were finally together, and I did not have to ask myself if I was worthy of him. This was the best moment of my life--

A beep sounded and a warning message flashed across on my internal sensors.

[Attention!]

[Heart beat has exceeded appropriate levels indicative of rising stress. Suggest all activity is terminated and dormant mode activated to allow heart beat to return to normal.]

I did a quick scan of my internal components. Nothing seemed amiss. [Ignore] I commanded.

Duo thrust up against me, sending another wave of fire through me. I bent a desperate kiss to Duo's lips before resuming operations as they were before the interruption.

If anything, the feeling was growing. More and more intense until I felt that if it continued any longer, I would die--and strangely, not in a bad way. Duo's movements against me were just as frantic, and I was forced to abandon all effort to catalogue this--

[Attention!]

[Heart beat has continued to exceed recommended levels. System control has been instated, all activity will cease until heart beat returns to approved level.]

Shit, was all I had time to think before everything went black.

__

  
/ Ride like the wind at double speed   
I'll take you places that you've never, never seen / 

I opened my eyes. 

First thing I noticed was that I was very cold. The second that the lights were on and Duo was swearing under his breath as he rummaged through his tool box. No--I was mistaken. He was inventing new swearwords. This could only indicate that Duo had used up all the words he knew--a feat that would take some time. I was concerned. 

What had happened?

"Duo?" I said, hesitantly.

"Heero--don't move--you'll mess up the wiring."

I blinked looking down at my chest and realising that my chest plate was open, and most of my wiring strewn across the floor. That would explain the cold feeling. The rest though--

"Duo, why are my parts all over the floor?"

"Don't worry, I'll put them back later." Duo pulled from the tool box a few pointy looking objects that made my skin temperature drop a few more degrees. "You don't know if I brought the soldiering iron, do ya?"

I froze. "Do you really think that will be necessary?"

"I dunno. I can't see what the problem is, so I'm going to check your internal hardware first," Duo said with a shrug, waving about a dangerous looking device with nonchalance. 

"Do you have to?" I didn't mean to sound so desperate and that--it just happened.

"Don't worry, Heero, I know what I'm doing!" Duo flashed me a cheery grin. "I'm a born mechanic!"

"I don't think this is a hardware problem," I said quickly, as Duo spotted the aforementioned soldiering iron. "Before I, ah--crashed--this message came up on my internal sensors. System control took over command."

"System control?" Duo asked, leaning over to poke at my chest plates.

"That is correct," I said, wincing as his fingers touched a ticklish spot. "Duo, your fingers are cold."

"Sorry, honey, I'll see what I can do about that in a minute."

"What are you doing?" I asked as he opened up my interior control functions monitor. 

"System control sounds like it would run your robotic parts so it's likely to be in here. Stop fussing, Heero, I know what I'm doing."

Only a superhuman grip on my self control stopped me from replying that I would like to see him lie quietly and not fuss while someone else rearranged his internal workings. Especially if said someone seemed entirely too enthusiastic about the whole process.

I was very relieved when Duo announced he'd found the problem.

"What is it?"

"There's a function here--you're allowed partial control of your mechanical parts but they can be automatically overwritten by remote control or when you do anything that--goes against 'original programming?' What the hell?"

What the hell was right. "Duo, what are you looking at?"

"Shush, I'm reading," Duo replied absently. 

I sighed. "Duo--"

"This is fascinating. It's like a bad sci-fi novel. You wouldn't believe what's in here--"

"Just tell me!"

"Oh, sorry, Heero. Let's see--if you don't follow J's orders he can overwrite your command of your body and make you do them--he can control your brainwaves with another remote device--I guess that was the baby G and I removed--and controls your mechanical parts with this here--Heero? You with me, Heero? Heero--"

I came to, suddenly realising Duo had abandoned his inspection of my wiring to stroke my face worriedly. "I'm okay, you don't have to worry," I told him. 

He smiled, kissing me on the forehead, making feel ashamed for even thinking of being nervous about entrusting him with my repairs. He loved me, he would not harm me.

"Good, you had me worried there. Did you hear--?"

"I heard. I want you to get rid of it."

"Heero?" 

"Turn it off!" Duo was staring at me--I don't think I'd ever yelled at him before. Truth was I was near panic. J had crossed the line before--but I would not be his puppet! "Please," I repeated in a softer tone. 

"If you're sure," Duo turned back to my internal controls again.

It took him awhile. He had to overwrite a lot of complicated code some of which was password protected. I helped with the programming aspect and together we succeeded in giving full control of my body--organic and mechanical parts alike--to myself.

"You know," Duo said, as he carefully put my wiring back in place. "We haven't been giving J enough credit."

"What?" I said. 

"I mean, yeah he's a cranky, pervy, selfish old bastard. And you can't forget his total lack of moral compunction, and ambitiousness. But I don't think we mentioned the sheer scope of his meanness. I mean, what kind of twisted psycho would put a program in place that would cause you to crash just at that precise moment--"

I slipped my hand over Duo's. "Would you like to try it again?"

Duo laughed. "Do you even need to ask?"

__

/ Start it up   
Love the day when we will never stop, never stop   
Never stop, never stop /

Duo was engaged in kissing me passionately, and I was just as passionately engaged in trying to get his clothes off, when there was a thump at the door. A very persistent thump followed by more. Apparently J wasn't the only evil scientist with bad timing.

"What?" Duo demanded.

"I want the two of you out of here now!" G yelled back, on the other side of the door. "There are coppers crawling the downside and to be caught with J's precious prodigy is more than my life is worth!"

"You're going to turn us out knowing the coppers are looking for us?" While Duo reasoned with G I put my clothes on. I wasn't exactly the optimistic sort. 

"Fine!" Duo was forced to yield eventually. "But if they catch us, I'll tell 'em you hid us."

"Ungrateful brat!"

"Don't get me started, G," Duo said with a long suffering sigh. 'I know a lot more nasty words than you do, and I'm not afraid to use them either."

G cackled. "I'll bet you do. And you can use them all you like on the coppers. Now get! You too--" He leered as I passed him with Duo's toolbox.

I hurried after Duo. "What will we do?"

"It was about time we left," Duo said. "In fact if G throws us out now, it will be rather lucky--means I don't have to work on that laser for him."

"But the coppers--"

"We hid from them before, we can do as much again. Come on, Heero! I was born down here--I know this place better than any upside copper--it'll be as safe as hitching a ride on the underside of a shuttle."

"Um," I said, not sure that the aforementioned pastime was really that safe. But the camera bot had arrived to lead us through the tunnels from G's laboratory and we followed.

__

  
/Tough me up   
Never stop, never stop, never stop / 

"See? See? And you thought we were in trouble!" Duo crowed happily.

I had to admit I was slightly startled to find ourselves back outside the Sweepers' fort without any mishap. Duo had managed to lead us through the downside avoiding all contact with copper patrols, thanks to his jamming device and extensive detours through an underground network of tunnels that Duo thought might once have been a train station. "I should trust you more."

"Yes you should," Duo said smugly. 

I snorted as he led the way towards the Sweepers' fort. I was beginning to see why Wufei kept telling us we shouldn't encourage him--

Duo stopped suddenly. 

"Is something--" I fell quiet as Duo put up a hand. 

For a few long moments we stood in silence.

"It's too quiet," Duo said. "Far too quiet."

"You think something has happened?" I asked.

Duo shook his head. "This is Howard," he said, though whether to reassure himself or me I wasn't sure. "Nothing ever happens to Howard or the guys . . . he wouldn't let it."

"What do you think we should do?" I asked.

"You wait here. I'll go in and see what's going on--" Duo turned to leave me but a tug at his braid halted him. 

"I'm not waiting. If anything has happened, I should be with you."

"Let me guess," Duo sighed. "Arguing with you won't help at all?"

"Not a bit," I said. 

"Didn't think so." He quickly pecked my cheek and then turned around. "It's probably Howard taking dire revenge for me running off again--"

As we progressed inside the fort the feeling of wrongness increased. No one was around, no sound was heard. 

"There has to be something to let us know what happened to them all," Duo said as we approached the main hall. The electronic doors sprang apart for us but Duo didn't step through them. "Howard would never leave the fort with the power running," he said. "Heero--be ready for anything."

I nodded and followed him into the hall. At first glance it was deserted. The lights were off, no sound came from the shadows--and Duo, in front of me, tensed. 

"Heero--run!" Duo pushed me towards the doors. He was too late. A humming sound, and then before I knew what I was running from I was pulled backwards violently. There was a sharp metallic bang, and, when my head cleared, I found myself held fast to a huge magnet.

"Heero!" Duo was tugging ineffectively at my wrists, trying to free them. 

"It's no use," a too familiar voice said coolly. "That magnet is powered by a considerable charge, it's beyond human strength to break it. It's even beyond Heero's strength."

"You--bastard! Complete and utter bastard!" Duo growled, desperation in his face as he gave up his attempt to free me.

J smirked, signalling to someone out of sight. "Now, now--you don't want to insult me. Not when I have your friends captive."

The lights went on to reveal the Sweepers, bound, most somewhat battered looking, and under the armed guard of the upside's law enforcement officers. Two more had moved to take the entrance as we spoke so we were now effectively trapped. I vainly tried to pull myself from the magnet but had the same success as Duo.

"Now that I have your attention," J continued, climbing down from the bridge with an officer beside him, "I suggest you surrender to us without any tricks."

Duo's face darkened. "I suggest you get a life you old--"

"Kid!" Howard interposed urgently. "Don't piss him off--please! He means business." Half of his face was swollen--it was clear what sort of business J meant. 

"Please Duo--Don't put yourself in any more danger," I whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. 

Duo wavered but with a scowl held out his wrists to the officer. 

J came over to stand at my side while this took place. "You've caused me a great deal of trouble, Heero. My investors are not at all happy."

"And as usual my views on the situation count for nothing?" I scowled back, regretting that words were the only weapon I had at my disposal. Ironic, isn't it? I was fitted with enough weapons to level the entire fort and could consciously use none of them.

"Now, Heero, you've been through a horrible ordeal, so I'm willing to cut you a little slack--"

"Don't patronise me," I spat at him. "I ran away of my own free will, to make my own life--to get away from your control! You want me to be your machine--and I refuse! And what's more, if you take me away now this won't solve anything." I felt calmer suddenly, stronger. J could not stop me, not if I was determined. "I can always run away again, you know--and I will. I'm no longer your toy."

J studied me a long moment. "I see the rot has spread farther than I anticipated," he said at last. "Still, there is one method of treatment still left to us." He turned to the officer handcuffing Duo. "Give me your gun."

I laughed. "That won't work, J. I'm not afraid of you."

"Good," J adjusted his hold on the gun. "I expect no less from you, Heero. However, the method of treatment I had in mind was something different--doctors often recommend the best way to curb an unsatisfactory behavioural pattern is the removal of the source of the behaviour--" The gun was hefted and spun around to meet its target--Duo. "Which in this case I take to be you."

My stomach dropped. J couldn't--how could he--

"Sir!" the officer protested. "He's unarmed--he surrendered to us."

"I believe I have jurisdiction over this manoeuvre," J replied just as calmly as before, letting the gun travel from Duo's pale face to his chest. 

"But--" the officer hesitated still, turning towards a uniformed figure leaning against the bridge.

"All command over this operation belongs to J," the man said and I tugged at my wrists again. If I could get just one of them free--

"What--no last words? You don't want to insult me again?" J smirked, nocking the gun. "This is your last chance after all--"

"Heero's right, you know," Duo said. "This won't work."

J's face blazed with anger. "Watch this, Heero," he said. "This is what will happen to every person who interferes with your mission."

And I watched, frozen with horror, as he shot Duo.

__

/ You, you, you make a grown man cry   
You, you make a dead man cum   
You, you make a dead man cum /

tbc.

(Lyrics are the property of the Rolling Stones. Oh, and the last two lines are not in anyway indicative of what will happen to Duo, they just happen to be the last two lines of the song. Don't panic.)


	6. crashed 6.

___Crashed 6___

girl_starfish

-------------------------------------------

Wufei put down his distance glasses. He had to admit it was worrying--the Sweeper fort was usually a hive of activity. The radio beside him beeped and he answered it. 

"Chang."

"Barton--Coppers."

Wufei swore. The worst that could happen to the Sweepers had--and although not a member of the Sweepers himself, Wufei knew he'd lost a lot. Howard was a fair man, and his gang had kept the area inside their territory safe to live in. Moreover, two-thirds of his customers were brought to him through Howard's network--to say nothing of the friends he'd made among the Sweeper's ranks. And Duo--Howard was like a father to him. 

"Is there nothing--"

"There's too many of them. This isn't a raid, Wufei. It's too organised for that."

The main bay slid open then. Wufei could see the coppers leaving, the officers herding cuffed Sweepers onto a transport shuttle. Wufei swore but there was nothing he could do. 

He slid off the fire escape that had been his shelter, working his way through the shadows to get closer to the fort. He made it into the main bay at last, hiding himself behind a pile of crates as he scanned the crowd. If Duo was here then he had to find him--

Wufei stared as he caught sight of the two men apparently leading the operation. Treize Kushrenada stood by the side of one of the shuttles, as elegantly attired as the last time Wufei had seen him, sipping at wine at one of his parents' dinner parties. The other--Wufei glared at J. He'd felt no compunction at all at sending Duo to rob the old scientist--J he'd always disliked. But this served only to confirm his fears--If J and Treize were involved, things did not bode well for the Sweepers.

At least Duo's not here, Wufei thought, as he sent a data message to Trowa, watching on the other side of the fort, to let him know what he'd found out. At least he and Heero are safe somewhere--

He stopped cold as Heero was carried out by two men, held fast by a magnet. The Chinese youth just stared. He didn't have to doubt that Heero was human after this--not after the evident pain he saw displayed on his face. His expression--Wufei was chilled. 

There was still no sign of Duo. 

Wufei decided to take the chance. He waited until the first transport was ready to take off then slipped round the crates to another lot further a long. Glancing back to see if he'd been spotted, he froze--Heero was looking directly at him.

His lips moved--he whispered something--

"A capital exercise, J," Treize said, clapping the scientist on the back. "What do you say to drinks afterwards?"

"I must decline," J patted the magnet. "Heero and I must work out some new ground rules."

"Now," mouthed Heero and Wufei made another burst for it--reaching the corridor undetected. He slid through the deserted corridors like a shadow, wary for any remaining officers. He heard none, reaching the main hall without incident. 

"No!" Wufei could not help the cry that was torn from him. He recognised the figure on the floor instantly--"Duo!"  


He crossed the gap between them instantly, kneeling to gather his friend into his arms. "Don't be dead, don't be dead--"

A moan indicated that his request was granted. Wufei pulled out his radio, entering another data message telling Trowa to fetch Sally immediately. 

"Hold on Duo--Sally will be here soon," Wufei said urgently. "Please don't die."  


"--m trying not to."

Wufei froze. Had he imagined--? "Duo?"

Duo coughed weakly.

Wufei helped him sit. "Try not to move. Just sit there--Let me take care of you--"

Duo leaned against his shoulder weakly. Wufei babbled to him, as he undid Duo's shirt, and tried to halt the flow of blood with the fabric. Duo seemed to drift in and out of awareness, the effort of speaking apparently too much to repeat. Except once--

"It'll be okay, I'm sure it is. I've seen Sweepers recover from wounds worse than this--Sally's one of a kind when it comes to patching people up," Wufei prattled, hoping to reassure himself. He had to keep talking to Duo, keep Duo with him. 

Duo stirred.

"Don't move," Wufei said urgently. "Rest against me--you'll need all your strength."

"Heero--"

Wufei wrapped his arms around Duo. "I'm sorry," he said. "J took him away--"

Duo shut his eyes. Wufei held him until Sally came.

-----------------------------------------

Duo.

I don't really know what happened next. Pain and losing considerable amounts of blood does that to people, I guess. I have some rather blurred memories of Wufei and Trowa hovering by my side worriedly with Sally being grim. I even think I remember Quatre bathing my wound once--

I didn't die though. It was touch and go for a while, and I wanted to die--Heero was gone and I was living most of the time in this dream where Heero was gone and J was turning him into a machine. No matter how much I tried to get through to him I couldn't reach him. When I woke I felt dead and drained.

Wufei sat with me whenever I was awake. He talked to me as he brushed my hair out and made me stay in bed. He read books to me, what books, I'm not sure--he was gentle though, his touch soft, his patience unending. He didn't seem to care that I did not talk, did not want to do anything--Sally told me off many times for my sulky behaviour. Trowa respected it and gave me distance, Quatre, although I'm sure he had many questions, followed his lead. But Wufei--once I told him about my dreams he brought a blanket in to sleep by my side on the floor. That's how much he cared, you see. It was as blunt and clear as the gash in my heart. Wufei loved me--and I only felt cold.

Eventually Sally said I could get out of bed. She had to help me down the crooked stairs to the heart of the Circus, the big old pub in the remains of an old apartment building. Cathy had done her best to fix the place up but it still looked disreputable.

The effort tired me and I had to sit down. Wufei brought me a drink and a blanket, I ignored both. Trowa came in with Quatre as always by his side--though now attired in a roughly made jacket and pants--Trowa was doing his best to make him fit in, even to taking a pair of scissors to Quatre's nicely cut hair. That effort cost Trowa more than it did Quatre--he seemed to like his uneven fringe. He was still far too tanned to pass for a native downsider on close inspection, but on seeing Trowa hovering protectively by him, few people would go for that close inspection. Especially not if Cathy was somewhere in the background--

But Trowa, after a glance in my direction, sat down beside Wufei and began talking to him in an urgent whisper.

Quatre sat by me. "It's good to see you out of bed," he said. "How are you feeling?"

I shrugged.

He didn't seem to mind. Somewhere during the course of my illness, he'd decided I was no longer the enemy--I think J shooting me was the deciding factor. Instead, he now viewed me as a friend. As dissuading him of this would have taken more energy than I had, I didn't bother and Quatre was happy enough, I guess.

"We managed to track down the Sweepers. They're being held in a labour camp, section 3. We didn't get to see everybody but Howard was there and he said--"

"Howard's all right?" I said. "And the guys?"

"I wouldn't say they're happy where they are but it could be a lot worse," Quatre told me. "They looked reasonably fit. Trowa was optimistic when we left, he said it shouldn't be too difficult finding a way to get them out--"

"We're going to spring 'em?" I asked, interested in something for the first time since I'd been shot. "What's the plan?"

"Forget it," Trowa told me. "You're in no condition to participate. You need to rest."

"Like hell," I said. "You're thirty people short--you need me."

"Don't be ridiculous. You must rest and that is all there is to it--"

"Oh, and who put you in charge?"

"Stop this!" Wufei cut in firmly. "We will get nowhere with you two squabbling like this. I think this falls under my jurisdiction--Howard has supported our activities time and time again. Will the two of you follow my lead on this?"

Trowa and I nodded. You could trust Wufei to be fair.

"Good," Wufei said. "Now, Trowa will explain the situation to us all, and all of us can work on the plan. Which of us will take part in the actual rescue will depend on whether or not Duo--and Quatre--are in shape in time."

There's a lot you can say about Wufei, but you have to say he's dead cunning. See by adding that condition he kept me in line and by bringing Quatre in, ensured that Trowa wouldn't argue. Ya gotta admire the guy.

Of course then Sally and Cathy got angry at him for overlooking them. Wufei was trying to argue that he wasn't being sexist, they just weren't employed by him and somewhere during the resulting fight I fell asleep. I guess you could say I wasn't fully recovered.

So it was that a week later, with Sally and Catherine, we drove into Section 3 in a large if somewhat battered transport shuttle. She was not a patch on Sheila, but I'd tweaked her so that, although not the most aerodynamically inclined of vehicles, she would pull a fair bit of speed in an emergency, and make us a reasonable get away.

Catherine was driving. We'd agreed to this only after much reluctance. Cathy was an okay pilot, but her habit of taking death drops and fast corners with the same sort of calm she used when throwing knives at her brother unnerved all of us. The rest of us were needed in the actual operation.

We'd done a lot of preparation for this, Cathy having talked her way into the surveillance tower and planted a bug the week before. Downside detention centres are pretty low on maintenance, so our bug hadn't been discovered. From what it picked up we'd garnered quite a lot of knowledge on what went on inside the centre.

Quatre and I changed into our uniforms and joined Wufei by the shuttle door. "Are you ready?" he asked.

I gave him the slightly bored look I always did when he asked me stupid questions. "Wufei, I was born ready." 

To my surprise he hugged me. "It's good to have you back, Duo." He pulled away from me to key in the code to unlock the doors. "Are you sure you can handle this, Quatre?"

The blond nodded. He seemed to be taking this all with surprising calm. "Let's go."

We stepped out of the shuttle and wandered through the streets to gates where the uniformed guards were coming out at the end of the shift. Ah, the power of the uniform. We walked right in without so much as a murmur from the guide at the desk--then again, he was there to stop people from getting out, not from getting in.

Once inside we picked up several boxes of files each from an empty storeroom and followed the corridor to the surveillance tower.

"I can't believe this worked," Quatre whispered behind me. "My father's corporation would never have--"

"Shush," I told him. "We got company."

Up ahead a self-important looking man was lounging against the wall. He stood up as we approached. "Can I see your--"

"Dude!" I greeted him enthusiastically. "Hey, long time no see. How've you been?"

He blinked. "Ah, pretty good. I haven't seen you--"

"Since that party--whose was it? Someone got promoted? I can't remember, but man, those were good times. It's been a while since we were strollin' these halls on guard duty together--"

"Yes, yes it has been," the man said. 

I continued on the subject of 'those good times' for a while, before going to search for my badge. "Aw, shit, I think I left it at home--well, you know me, always forgetful." I sighed. "Guess I'll have to go back to the office and let them know I've lost another one--" I brightened hopefully as a thought occurred to me. "Unless you want to be a pal, and overlook it?"

"Nah, go right ahead," the man waved me through. "I know you."

What can I say? I'm brilliant.

"My card's in my inside pocket," Quatre said, wobbling his boxes precariously. "I'll have to get it out--"

"New recruit," I told the guard. "I'm showing him the ropes."

"Quatre," Quatre said, wobbling the boxes as he tried to free a hand in order to shake hands. "It's nice to meet you--oh dear--"

"Go on through before you drop those boxes," the guard said, holding the door open for us. "See you later!"

We'd made it. A short lift ride and we would be in the communications room in the surveillance tower. I pulled my gun from my pocket and dropped it in the box of folders I carried, Quatre did the same. "Quatre?" I asked.

"What?"

"You told him your real name?"

Quatre blushed. "Well, it's not as if anyone would expect the Winners' lost heir to be breaking into a prison," he said. "Most people think I'm dead."

"Lucky for us," I said as the lift stopped. "Hey guys!" I said cheerily, stepping into the communications room. "We've got some files we need you to take a look at. Where do you want them?"

The two radio operators stood. "The store room should be good. This way--"

"Perfect!" I plonked the folders down, picking up my gun as I turned around. "Hands in the air, please gentlemen."

They stared. "But--how--"

Thunk! Bam!

They collapsed to the floor in a pile. Quatre, smirking, put down the heavy file he was holding. "I think I like being on the wrong side of the law."

"According to Wufei," I said as we barred the door and then tied up the unconscious radio operators up, "All upsiders are natural criminals. He says it was refreshing to come to the downside where if someone wants to rob you blind, they will do so, rather than pretending to be your friend and sympathise."

"It's not that bad," Quatre said. 

I snickered. "I'll tell you one thing--he didn't say that when I robbed him."

"You robbed Wufei?"

"Oh yeah. That's how we met. Course I didn't know then that he was proficient in five forms of martial arts," I winced at the memory. 

"Oh dear," said Quatre. 

"Yes. We better hurry--we have a show to put on."

Not much longer after that we were ready for action. There was just one last thing we had to do. I grinned as I picked up the microphone. "Attention, everyone. Superintendent Wallis is a pompous self-serving git with the sex appeal of a gumboot and the common sense of a flea. Thank-you."

Quatre choked. "Duo!"

"What better way to get said pompous git out of his office and up here?" I asked. "Besides, now the Sweepers will be aware of our presence."

Quatre shook his head at me and tried to look grim. It was spoiled, however, by the wave of laughter that announced the arrival of our target. 

Quatre unbarred the door smoothly as he arrived. 

"What is the meaning of that--that--outrageous--and totally unprovoked, not to mention untrue attack? How dare you--" What do you know. Superintendent Wallis was a pompous git.

"My mistake," I said. "I guess I forgot to mention you were stupid too."

He kind of stuttered in pure shock until Quatre put the poor guy out of his misery with another well placed file.

"Much as I was itching to do the same thing myself, Q, you do realise we need him conscious?"

"Oops," Quatre said, nudging the body at his feet with his foot. "I guess I got carried away."

I rolled my eyes. "Ah well, let's just get on with it, huh?

Startled guards all over the compound looked up as their screens crackled into life. 

"Attention all officers! We have a suspected uprising in area 4b," the Superintendent said, sweating nervously (we'd managed to wake him up and now had a gun at his head). "A special crew is coming straight from above to deal with it. Stay at your posts and ensure that none of the others join the revolt--we suspect this is a carefully planned attempt that may have sympathisers throughout the prison."

I flipped the radio off. "Not bad. You can hit him again, Q."

"With pleasure." 

So Superintendent Wallis hadn't made the best of impressions on us. I am sensitive about my weight and no one can blame Quatre for reacting like he did to the out of place suggestion concerning his parentage. While Quatre fielded concerned phonecalls from other stations, I made a few changes to the coppers' programming and activated the big machines--now ordered to hunt the officers.

I never said I was nice.

A call from the docking centre came in. "Hello Roger--You're not Roger."

"Roger was called away to handle the disturbance in area 4b," Quatre said smoothly. "May I help?"

"Roger--that cowardly desk ornament has never even seen active duty--what's he going to do?"

"I believe he's co-ordinating the efforts of the various teams dealing with the uprising," the upsider continued smoothly without a hint of panic. 

"Sounds like him, the sly beggar. So, do you have authority to clear a vessel--serial number DX-2203--that wants admission?"

"A moment. I'll check with Wilson." Wilson was the other unconscious radio operator. "Quatre blacked the screen, then turned it on again. "Yes, that's quite all right. It's the back-up we were expecting."

"Thanks for that. Docking bay, out."

I leaned over Quatre's shoulder as he turned off his screen. "And there's the cavalry."

"Do you think they'll be all right?"

"Trowa will be fine," I said, rightly translating 'they' as my green-eyed friend, judging by Quatre's blush. "All we gotta do now is wait."

While Quatre cut all communications out of the base, I rewired a jug so as to bypass the turning off once the water had boiled function and set it up by the abandoned desks. Quatre hit the operators and Superintendent a couple more times with the files (he seemed almost too enthusiastic about that part of our mission) and then I added the last ingredient in this extremely cunning plan to the jug and we turned out the lights.

"Popcorn?" Quatre said. 

"Ssh," I told him. "You'll see."

"But popcorn?"

He got the idea once the jug heated and kernels started bursting. "I get it--it sounds like gunfire."

"Right. Anyone trying to get in contact with the office will think they've been overrun. No one will be able to find the superintendent who should be giving orders and the coppers running around there won't help any." I grabbed a handful of popcorn. "Wufei and the others will be able to march Howard and the Sweepers out of there without any difficulty and then we can blow this joint without anyone even realising a jailbreak has taken place. Want some?"

Quatre accepted a handful of popcorn with a smile. "So now we just wait for Wufei and the others to pick us up?"

"Why wait?" I picked up my gun. "This lot aren't going anywhere--not after the way you wielded those files--you're a force to be reckoned with when you've got a file in your hands, Q-man."

Quatre blushed. "Are you sure Wufei won't mind if we just turn up?"

"Probably," I said. "But that's never stopped me before."

The blond hesitated. "I don't know--what if something went wrong?"

"You're probably right," I said. "I've got a better idea. How about you stay here and I see if I can't find where all the Sweepers' equipment was taken?"

Quatre didn't disapprove of that idea. "Be careful, Duo."

"Thanks," I said. "I won't be long."

It wasn't hard at all to find the Sweepers' stuff or to get to it amidst all the chaos in the prison. It was all packed up in crates ready to go to--I raised an eyebrow. J thought he could not only steal my Heero, but my buddies' equipment too? Still that was easily dealt with. I smirked as I wiped J's address from the data pads on the outside of the containers and replaced it with that of one of the upside apartments Wufei had taken for when he was scouting the upside for likely targets.

There was something else though--I dug around in one of the trailers that looked as though it contained my stuff until I found my gloves, climbing hooks and bungee cord. A sack nearby made a handy backpack and I was back in the surveillance tower before Quatre had had time to get worried.

"I'm glad you're back," he said. "I'm having trouble keeping up with the popcorn."

"You don't have to eat it all," I said. 

"But we can't leave it on the floor--think of the mess! If it gets trampled into the carpet--"

"Quatre--you have repeatedly beaten three officers--and you're worried about their carpet?" 

"I guess you're right--that doesn't make sense," Quatre admitted, but continued to eat the popcorn. Finally our communicators beeped.

"Wufei?" Quatre said. "Jump out the window? Are you sure?"

I pulled back the curtains to reveal the shuttle outside. "Come on Quatre--you don't want to miss our ride."

Quatre looked at the jump from the window to the shuttle top. "There is no way I'm doing that."

"Aw, go on. Do it for Trowa," I said. 

"Oh, fine."

I blinked. That was easy.

Quatre, still somewhat dubious, made the jump from window to shuttle with only a little hesitation. He was hauled into the hovering shuttle by waiting hands immediately and I was beckoned to do the same. I grinned as I jumped off the windowsill--so I'm an adrenaline junkie. So what?

Too soon I was on the shuttle, getting pulled inside by dozens of hands. No sooner was I inside then I was crushed in a huge hug.

"Duo--oh Duo!" Howard was--crying? "We thought you were dead--you--you--lucky devil! How on earth did you survive? Let me look at you!" Howard lessened his grip enough for me to take a breath and reply to him.

"Wufei found me--fetched Sally. I'm glad you're okay Howard--"

"Shut up you," Howard hugged me again. "Never ever scare me like that again, Duo." He sniffed letting go of me. "Off with you, you young scamp before I ground you for life for scaring me like that."

"Duo! Good to have you back!"

"We missed ya, kid."

"Loved the intercom message."

I was enthusiastically greeted by the Sweepers as a returning hero. I was sincerely glad to see them too--my second family. Not even Wufei grumbling about how bad this would be for my already over-large ego could dampen our reunion. Cathy's driving didn't faze us in the slightest.

We convened to the Circus for drinks and stayed up till all hours. Or at least they did. Sally marched me off to bed pretty quickly and to tell you the truth I wasn't up to protesting. I fell asleep happy for the first time in ages.

I woke up before anyone else. I came downstairs to smile fondly at the sight of Howard and most of the Sweepers stretched out more or less unconscious in the bar area. Seems like they'd done a bit too much celebrating. I smiled at them all, and then quietly slipped out the back door.

The darkness of the underside enveloped me. Didn't matter whether it was late or early--it's all the same down here. I took the tunnels and alleys across city and up until I found myself at the foot of one of the huge skyscrapers that led to the upside. I tipped my climbing equipment out of my bag and put it on. I'd gone as far as I could on foot--now I'd have to test my recovered strength to its limits.

It would be worth it. If I could just get to the top--

By the time I reached J's balcony I was exhausted, every muscle in my body ached, and I wanted to sleep for a week. I barely had enough energy to blow the lock and sneak inside. 

Heero's room was empty. I forced myself not to despair. I would look everywhere in the apartment, and if he wasn't there I would track him through J's computer. I bypassed the room where J snored and slipped into the lounge. I found the trigger for the hidden workroom behind the entertainment unit just as Heero had shown me. It was dark inside but I thought I detected--steady breathing?

I pressed the light pad by the side of the room. The workroom had been converted into a bedroom--Heero slept in the bed in the middle of the room. He was attached to the wall by a chain. I tested it--Gundanium. My explosives would not be much use on it--and it looked like it had been fused solid to negate any chance of picking the lock. J wasn't taking any chances on his precious charge this time around. Still I'd been prepared for as much. 

I lifted the sheet, snuggling in beside Heero. He murmured in his sleep, throwing one arm around me. I smiled as I shut my eyes. Finally, I was back where I belonged.


	7. crashed 7.

__Crashed 7__  
  
by girl_starfish  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
Hung over again?  
  
Wufei groaned and buried his head in his pillow. When would he learn that this was a bad idea?  
  
And he couldn't even blame Duo this time--Duo had gone to sleep relatively early. He was safe, he'd seemed happy--one might even venture to say that he was healing from recent events.  
  
Wufei knew better.  
  
He'd underestimated Duo once before and it had cost him the braided boy's affections. Now he thought he finally knew him, knew the depth of his emotions--and why?  
  
Because he'd watched Duo gift them to someone else. He was jealous, Wufei acknowledged it. He envied Heero, even given what had happened to him, what might be happening to him now. And there was the problem.  
  
If Heero had been there Wufei would have accepted that he and Duo were together, with difficulty perhaps, but he would have accepted it.  
  
But this, this not knowing was difficult. It was unlikely that Heero would return--but would Duo see it like that?  
  
Wufei doubted it. As long as Heero was alive, Duo would wait and hope. But if he wasn't? What then?  
  
Wufei was acutely aware of the selfishness of his thoughts.  
  
Duo needed his support right now, he needed attention and care and to know that he was not alone--  
  
With that in mind, Wufei went downstairs. Aspirin was procured from Catherine, and stepping over unconscious Sweepers with care, Wufei began the preparation of a simple breakfast. Duo still wasn't recovered of course- -and taking place in the rescue hadn't helped.  
  
He'd have killed himself if anything had happened to Duo because of his decision--but what could he do? It had been so good to see him looking interested in anything again--  
  
That's when Wufei made up his mind. They would get Heero back.  
  
He carried the plate up to Duo carefully, already thinking of plans. They knew J's address--it wasn't likely Heero would still be there but that would make a starting point--  
  
His family had links with the other man involved, Treize Kushrenada. He'd once extended an invitation to Wufei to study at his school--that could be a useful way into the organisation--  
  
"Duo?" he said, pushing the door open. "I have breakfast for you--and I--"  
  
The room was empty. Wufei put the plate down. He had a bad feeling about this.  
  
Trowa and Quatre were still asleep. Howard didn't remember seeing him since last night. Catherine went to check the other rooms while Wufei looked for Sally. The doctor was grumpy at being disturbed and lost no time in telling Wufei that Duo had not been so inconsiderate as to wake her up at some ungodly hour.  
  
Wufei ignored the implied insult. Duo was gone. That was all that mattered.  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
Heero.  
  
I was not surprised when I drifted out of sleep to become aware of a warm presence next to me. I'd dreamed of this constantly for the last week or so, why should now be any different? Instead I slipped an arm around the body beside me, and cuddled closer.  
  
A stray wisp of hair tickled my nose and I smiled. Duo--  
  
I sighed. I missed him so much--I would never see him again, it was useless to hope. I had no guarantee Wufei had got there in time--  
  
Instead I rolled over onto one elbow, determined to enjoy this illusion while it lasted. Duo frowned as he burrowed into the empty spot I had left. I sighed as Duo relaxed under a gentle touch, marvelling at the warmth I felt, running a hand along his cheek.  
  
"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "If I hadn't gone with you--you would be fine now. J would have had no reason to shoot you--Duo, I may have killed you--"  
  
I gathered the dream Duo's hair and wept into it--the realness of the hair against my face did not trouble me. My memories had always been vivid--a spin off effect from my incredibly powerful computer memory.  
  
I looked fondly at the sleeping face in front of me, tracing the outline of the familiar features with sadness. It was almost painful how beautiful Duo was, even in memories. I let out a sad exclamation of breath as my fingers ran over one smooth cheek--wait--  
  
There was a slight raised patch. I ran my fingers over it--a scrape? But Duo hadn't--I lifted the sleeping Duo carefully. Now I could see there was quite a nasty cut on Duo's other cheek--one that I knew Duo had not received while with me. There were other differences too--his braid was not quite so neatly combed as usual, he'd lost weight.  
  
Could this be--? I didn't know whether I was afraid that he was not real or feared that he was--Holding my breath I gently separated the shirt Duo wore.  
  
The pale chest was marred by a thick scar--It was.  
  
I choked. "Duo--"  
  
"Mmph." Duo snuggled up to me. "Wanna sleep."  
  
"Duo," I said, voice as firm as I could make it. "Wake up."  
  
"--No," Duo said. "You may have got a full night's sleep, Heero, but I was climbing up this building for more time that I want to think about and I could do with some sleep, okay?"  
  
Further argument was curtailed by Duo throwing an arm around me and resting his head on my chest. All this without waking up.  
  
I smiled and drawing him closer, lay back down. There would be time for questions later, for now--I would simply enjoy this miracle while it lasted.  
  
About half an hour later Duo yawned, stretched, and promptly fell off the bed. "Ow . . . who put a floor there?" he complained, as he strove to untangle himself from the bedding he'd pulled with him.  
  
I smirked. "Not exactly a morning person, are you?"  
  
Duo gulped at me. "Heero! Heero--I made it!"  
  
Any answer I might have made to that was cut off by Duo enthusiastically throwing himself at me. It's somewhat hard to speak when there's another person hanging off your neck.  
  
"I was so worried, I--how are you, love? What has J been doing to you?"  
  
"I'm fine. He's been attempting to overwrite what you and G did to me, but he's not having much luck. Whatever you did, you did it good--he can't make me obey him."  
  
"He can chain you to a wall though," Duo said unhappily.  
  
"Forget that," I told him. "J has to do that because he can't control me any other way. I'm my own person now." I took his face in my hands and caught his eyes with mine. "I'm not afraid of him anymore. But I am afraid for you. He can still hurt you--"  
  
"I'm not afraid of J either," Duo said, wrapping himself firmly around my arm.  
  
"He can use you to hurt me," I said and I saw Duo pause. "I'm glad that you came but you must go, before J finds you."  
  
"I'm not going anywhere," Duo said as I feared he would. "We're doing this together, no matter what."  
  
"Duo," I growled. "Would you listen to reason for once?"  
  
"I'm not going anywhere, Heero, so just give up and kiss me okay? We only have a limited amount of time before we're found and I'd rather spend it making out with you than yelling at you, mmm?"  
  
He had a compelling argument.  
  
Our kisses were somewhat frenzied, carrying out a check that all was indeed right with each other. We had barely enough time to ascertain we were more or less all right before I detected the sounds of J in the kitchen.  
  
"J is awake," I said drawing away from Duo. "He will be here soon."  
  
Duo pouted. "Again with the bad timing--he just does it to annoy me, doesn't he?" He reluctantly straightened his clothes. "Got to make a good impression on the in-laws," he explained to my increased mystification.  
  
Duo could do with some work on giving explanations.  
  
A few minutes later J entered with my breakfast. "I don't know why I bother feeding you, for all your ingratitude. If you don't show some improvement soon--"  
  
"Excuse me," Duo said, squeezing my hand surreptitiously. "I believe we ordered breakfast for two?"  
  
J stared then pulled out his gun. "You! What are you doing here?"  
  
"I came to check on Heero," Duo said coolly. "I've invested a lot of time into him, I don't want my hard work to go to waste."  
  
I suppressed a shudder, keeping my demeanour as cool as Duo's. It disturbed me though to hear him speak of me as if I was a machine--only the warm touch of his fingers on mine kept me calm.  
  
"You're not telling me you're the one that made those changes," J laughed. "That's preposterous! You're practically a child, not to mention that I recognised some of the workmanship as that of a colleague of mine--"  
  
"You mean G?" Duo stretched lazily.  
  
"How do you know of him?" J snapped. "Where is he? Who's hiding him?"  
  
"If you want to know you can stop waving that gun around for starters. And you might fetch me something to eat too."  
  
I was worried. J was not the most patient of people--and he already had good reason to dislike Duo--  
  
"I've shot you once, cur. I can do it again."  
  
"You do and you won't get anything I know."  
  
J glared and left.  
  
"That went well, don't you think?" Duo said.  
  
"This is madness. Utter and complete madness--you should go."  
  
"Not happening," Duo said. "No lock on your manacles, no catch on the wall-- How was he going to free you once you'd started obeying him?"  
  
"Treize owns a very powerful laser. I think they were going to use that."  
  
"Well that helps us a lot," Duo sighed, tugging at my chain. "This sucks--" he brightened hopefully. "You're not into bondage, are you, by any chance?"  
  
I stared at him.  
  
He sighed. "Guess not. Damn."  
  
"You are insane."  
  
"Thank-you."  
  
I laughed. Seeing Duo's face warm instantly, I knew that was what he'd been trying for. I held out my arms to him. "Come here."  
  
He slid his arms around my waist and rested his head on my shoulder, as I slid an arm around him. "You're not mad at me?"  
  
"I never was. Worried yes, but not mad--"  
  
"We'll be fine, Heero."  
  
Perhaps an hour later there was a brief noise in the hallway, and then the doorway opened. Duo and I pulled apart reluctantly--although we hadn't been doing anything, it was nice just to rest in each other's company--  
  
"Treize," I said, startled, as I recognised the figure at the doorway.  
  
Treize nodded, holding up a picnic basket and a bottle of some very expensive looking champagne. "Breakfast for two, was it?" he asked, suavely.  
  
Diplomacy, huh? I had to smirk at that. Treize had come to be charming and aristocratic--  
  
"About time," Duo said, wriggling off the bed to look at the vintage. "Not too shabby. I suppose glasses are in the basket?"  
  
--But he didn't know Duo.  
  
Treize raised an eyebrow as Duo decorked the bottle with his teeth then poured a glass for himself and me. "May I offer a toast to the outcome of this meeting?"  
  
"Depends," Duo said. "On what you want the outcomes to be. I like to know what I'm drinking too."  
  
"A successful partnership, between yourself, Heero, and my party. I'm sure such a relationship would only benefit those concerned--" Treize put stress on the word 'relationship'. He was at his most debonair. I wouldn't have noticed before I met Duo, but now I knew what he was angling after and was amused. Did he really think that would work?  
  
That he could buy us off with charm, and caviar, French champagne, and sex?  
  
I sat back to wait for Duo to set him right.  
  
He didn't.  
  
He accepted Treize's compliments, listened to his speeches, gave ambiguous answers and ate most of the food.  
  
When Trieze left, I was worried.  
  
"He does go on, doesn't he?" Duo sighed. "What do you think, Heero?"  
  
"What do you mean? You seem to have this all sorted out. Treize seems willing enough to take you on as another mechanic--"  
  
"Oh that," Duo shrugged. "Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? I can oversee any alterations they make, and undo 'em, when they're not around--Ooff! Easy Heero--those ribs are breakable--"  
  
I had him caught up in an immense hug. I'd thought--I couldn't say what I'd thought. But the little seeds of worry that perhaps Duo was more interested in my mechanical parts than me were gone.  
  
"Duo--I won't let them do anything to you, if they try," I told him. "You'll be safe."  
  
"I'll be doing the same for you," Duo said. "They won't get past us."  
  
That's what happened.  
  
Amazing how soon anything can become routine.  
  
The running machine squeaked as I continued to run steadily. I'd run ten kilometres, without showing any sign of exhaustion or strain. The same could not be said of the machine. I caught Duo's eye as the treadmill gave a particularly tortuous groan and smirked.  
  
"Hey, Doc," Duo said, sitting on the bench. "You want me to upgrade that treadmill for ya?"  
  
J growled, scanning the feedback he was getting from the monitoring equipment. "I don't believe this! How did you manage to improve overall performance by that much, where I failed?"  
  
Duo took the lollypop out of his mouth to wave it at J. "Uh-uh-uh! I thought we'd covered this. You don't pester me for secrets, and I don't nag you about needing to retire."  
  
"Damn you! Ungrateful cur! Flea-bitten brat!"  
  
"Now, now," Duo began. I joined him with the end of the sentence.  
  
"Flattery will get you nowhere."  
  
J groaned. "You've wrecked my experiments! Destroyed everything!"  
  
"Hey!" Duo protested. "I happen to think Heero's pretty cool the way he is."  
  
"He was intended to be the perfect soldier," J said. "You've tainted him-- you with your feelings and your jokes--"  
  
"Hey, what's a soldier without a witty rejoinder? Haven't you seen 'Rambo'?"  
  
"No, I have not," J said. "Nor do I wish too. I have quite enough trouble trying to reconcile my experiments to the mess you've made of them. Do you have any idea how hard it was to acquire a child that was without any ties of human affection?"  
  
What?  
  
"You don't mean we have to add adoption fraud to your long list of unsociable habits?" Duo said, voice hard.  
  
J laughed. "In the pursuit of greatness sacrifices are inevitable."  
  
There was a thick metallic crunch. I looked down at my feet, entangled in the remains of the machine. "Oops," I said. "I think I broke it."  
  
"Do you have any idea how much that thing cost?" J stormed over to the machine. "It's ruined."  
  
"It seems," I said, kicking the rest of the machine across the lab. "Well, what's next?"  
  
"Let's see …" Duo said, consulting the list. "I think we're up to the part where I try to convince you to let me take off Heero's clothes in the name of science--"  
  
J slammed the door.  
  
"Getting better," Duo said, making a note. "We've reduced the amount of time it's taken to make J so mad he can't stand to be around us by 50%. Good work I think--" Duo slid off the bench and put his hand on my shoulder. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I never knew my parents," I said. "But I--I thought--"  
  
"Hey--" Duo gently touched my cheek. "It'll be okay, I promise. Heero?"  
  
I crushed him to me. "Duo," I said. "Never ever let me become like him."  
  
Duo hugged me back. "Never," he said.  
  
There were sounds outside the door and we drew apart reluctantly. Although Duo continued to tease me while J was around, we were careful not to let the scientists see how much we meant to each other. As long as they thought our relationship was based on lust and greed and self-advancement, they could not use our feelings for each other against us.  
  
Duo had managed to convince them he was as self-interested as they were, although his interests lay in me, and me alone. He was allowed to work with J as a kind of glorified lab assistant. During the day he and J worked on 'improving' me, at night, Duo tampered with the alterations so that the results were rather less than what J had intended. Duo had given J even more grey hairs by flatly refusing to undo the changes he and G had made to giving me freedom of thought, or the parts relating to sex. But they were trying to boost the power of the laser, and streamlining my machinery. Duo told me late at night that he suspected that Treize and J were preparing an army of soldiers like me--  
  
The thought made me cold.  
  
It wasn't J though. A man in a uniform pushed the door open. "In here, boys," he said.  
  
"Look here!" J's voice rose angrily. "You can't do this--I demand an explanation!"  
  
"We're removal men. We move things from one place to another. Will that do?" More men followed, packing J's equipment into big boxes they carried into the lab.  
  
"Stay here," J instructed Duo and me. He raised his voice angrily as he expostulated  
  
with the removal men. "Who gave you the authority to just barge in here? That is delicate scientific equipment--"  
  
"We just got told t' come in here an' move it all out. If you've got problems, then you see whoever ordered this. We've got a deadline to meet-- "  
  
That sounded like--I turned to look at Duo, who was standing up, with an expression of alertness on his face.  
  
"Who ordered this? I'm sure there's some mistake--" J snatched the paper. "What can Treize be thinking?"  
  
"You want the phone?" Duo offered, boredly.  
  
J snatched it and went into the office.  
  
"How'd you know we'd doctored the phones, kid?"  
  
"Lucky guess?" Duo high-fived Howard. "Nice to see you, old man."  
  
"If we could perhaps behave with something approximating decorum?" another familiar voice cut in smoothly. "We're not out of the fire yet."  
  
J re-entered the room swearing. "The phone's engaged," he said. "I'm going around to see Treize at once. Don't--" he waved his finger at Duo, "think you can pull anything funny. There are armed guards at the door."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Duo shrugged, throwing J a mocking salute. The scientist stormed out of the apartment angrily. And then--  
  
"Now," said Wufei, taking off his cap. "I think we can abandon decorum."  
  
I would have hugged him then, if Duo hadn't beaten me to it.  
  
"Wufei, you're a life saver! If I had to listen to that old toad tell me I needed a haircut one more time, I would have strangled him with my own hands."  
  
"It's good to see you," I stated to Howard. "You've come to get us out?"  
  
Howard patted the crate by his side. "Easy as pie. We're here to move the contents of J's lab are we not? And you are contents of J's lab, right?"  
  
Wufei lifted the top off a crate the Sweepers, wearing the removal men disguises, had just carried in. "After you," he bowed to Duo.  
  
Duo made a face but complied.  
  
"Your box is this one, Heero," Howard said. I took one last look at Wufei sealing the top of Duo's box. He smirked at me as he plastered a 'This Way Up' sticker on it--upside down.  
  
I had a feeling we'd be hearing all about that at length later. Still--  
  
"Wipe all the information on the computers," I said. "He was going to make more like me."  
  
Howard's eyes widened, then he nodded. "Will do."  
  
I climbed into the box, gingerly. Howard closed it and I felt it shift as it was carried out of the room--and presumably the building.  
  
I remembered the security of our apartment complex from my infrequent trips beyond the confines of J's workroom as being very tight. I couldn't even imagine how bad it would be after my escape--I calculated the amount of time it would take us to reach the check point and waited anxiously for discovery--  
  
Time passed.  
  
There were shuttle noises and a lot of being shifted and bumped around-- and then the box being opened.  
  
"Cramped?" Duo asked. "Let me help you up."  
  
I was glad to take his hand. "We did it?" I asked. "We got away?"  
  
"I think we did," Duo said, his own voice hushed. "We did it."  
  
"Why so surprised?" I asked. "You said we would."  
  
"I have to hand it to you, kid," Howard winked at us. "That jammer of yours is something else."  
  
"Told you so!" Duo was triumphant. "Didn't I, Heero?"  
  
There was a dry cough behind us. Wufei leaned against the wall. "We've got some refreshments in the bridge," he said. "And I have something important to say."  
  
I slid my hand round Duo's waist. "After you, Wufei."  
  
Trowa and Quatre were also waiting in the bridge. After the usual fuss of reunions--which mainly consisted of everyone telling Duo off for being so reckless and then asking me how I got on--we settled down enough for Wufei to make his announcement.  
  
"I think it's obvious that Kushrenada and J will still pursue Heero," he said. "Loathe as I am to suggest this, I think we need to find them somewhere safe, as far away from here as possible. I recently invested in some property in Old Hong Kong--I suggest its time to expand our operations. With that in mind, I'd like to invite Quatre Winner and Heero Yuy to become partners in our operation."  
  
Duo squeezed my hand.  
  
"I'd be honoured," I said.  
  
"Same with me," Quatre said, beaming. Trowa couldn't say anything, Quatre had him in a hug that somewhat resembled a deathgrip.  
  
Wufei smiled. "We can discuss the details later. For now--let's go celebrate."  
  
End. 


End file.
